Wal-Mart Chooses Blu-ray
Wal-Mart became the number one retailer through, among other things, ruthless efficiency and their phase-out of HD-DVD will be just as quick and merciless. They will remove HD-DVD discs and players from their namesake stores and their Sams Club chain by June of this year.
So it’s the end of the road for HD-DVD, especially after a dismal January featuring Universal’s decision to go Blu-ray and other studios following suit. This week we saw Netflix announce a phaseout of HD-DVD by the end of 2008, making Wal-Mart’s mid-year phaseout seem amazingly fast.
My heart goes out to the folks who took a risk buying the HD DVD player for the Xbox 360. At the outset of the HD format war so much seemed to be in HD-DVD’s favor. I’m sure someone will write a big book about what happened behind the scenes to tip the scales in Blu-ray’s favor.
Source: CNN Money on Wal-Mart’s choice and Engadget on Netflix’s Choice
Recent Comments