Has the end of one of the most embarrassing disputes in the history of consumer technology come too late? Has Blu-ray won one war only to find itself facing a new competitor: video-on-demand?
The historic battle between VHS and Beta ended decisively at the dawn of the era of home-recordable video. VHS had plenty of time to enjoy the spoils of its success. A format war might have erupted at the dawn of the compact video disc era between two groups of vendors led by Philips and Matsushita, though they were able to come to terms in time for the sunrise of DVD's window of opportunity.
Today, it is the video-on-demand era that appears to be on the horizon, and yet it is here when the collision between the interests of two sets of intellectual property holders has finally come to a gruesome, though decisive, resolution. Will Blu-ray have time enough to enjoy its place in the sun? Or will Sony and its allies revive a classic scene from a Chuck Jones cartoon, where the coyote finally clutches onto what appears to be a live bird, and just before beginning his victory dance, comes to realize slowly, carefully, that there's no more cliff to prevent him from falling victim to gravity?
It's a topic that we discussed at length with our regular source of insight on such matters, technology analyst Carmi Levy. We began with the obvious question: Who benefits from the demise of HD DVD?
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