The graph shows Blu-Ray and HD-DVD hardware sales for the first two weeks of January. Looking the recent data (on the right), you pretty much get how bad this is getting for HD-DVD, if you still care. Many consumers would wait prices and combo-drives are ubiquitous, but if you can’t wait, then this is pretty good indication that HD-DVD is hosed.
When we talked to Samsung, they said that a dual-format drive was only 10% to 15% more expensive to make, and that they could “easily” go back to a single format, if necessary. There’s no need for drama, and may be we’ll stop hearing about this soon. Interestingly enough, there are 11 DVD formats (R, RW+, RW-…), but thanks to combo drives, nobody cares.
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