Yesterday, the big news in many of my technology blogs was that Warner Bros had decided to switch from producing both HD-DVD AND Blu-ray movies which satisfy all customers wanting high definition content to deciding on only a single format. In a way, it doesn’t matter what the format was because it eliminates some portion of customers out there and says “you are not worth our attention AND you chose the wrong thing AND you’re investment in hardware and movies is now worthless.” It probably says a lot more too but I think those are the creme of the crop statements.
Warner Bros chose Blu-ray in fact. In their press release, which many sources reported as the actual news, they claimed (I’m paraphrasing) that the customers are not interested in choosing between formats and that they wanted to make everything easier for the customer. I agree that a format war like the one that exists where some studios only produce for one format or another and not both (like Warner Bros was doing) is bad for customers/me. The problem is that Blu-ray by itself is not doing what competition ought to do and that is drive price to a point where customers want to buy. HD-DVD products have really done that (it’s the only reason I bought HD-DVD players).
As a customer, I’m very disappointed in the news as that I just put my toe in the sand. I’m not really sure this is about customers at all. Corporations forget customers all the time and just don’t realize what is important for customers and try to justify their business decisions for psuedo customer reasons.
Ultimately, I don’t think HD-DVD is better. I just think that this decision is spun and we should open our eyes to what it really is.
Blu-ray may be position to win this now with virtually everyone falling in line so for future customers it does make an easier decision but for the ones left behind, this is not pleasant.