Saturday, April 23, 2005

Sony vs. Toshiba Update



The battle between Sony and Toshiba may finally be coming to an end. According to RedHerring.com, the companies are discussing a common standard, basically either Blu-Ray, HD, or some totally new technology.

That being said, Sony has the most to loose by compromising their Blu-Ray technology. Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations, Sony’s next generation game consol will utilize their Blu-Ray discs. If that’s the only item on the market that uses Blu-Ray, then Sony is missing out on a lot of royalties. Sony will have to bear the financial burden of introducing a new console with a new disc format that no one else uses, which means the games and console could cost more.

However, if Toshiba compromises their HD disc technology, they will be missing out on all the royalties as well. Both companies have sunk an incredible amount of money into their respective technologies for the past three years, which pretty much rules out a new format. I see this ending in Sony or Toshiba purchasing the other company’s technology so they can either use it as their own, or scrap it so they can use their original technology.

The only downside to this news is that if a totally new format is created, it could set back the debut of the new technology by as much as a year-and-a-half. If the Blu-Ray format is picked, it means more storage space and a new era in disc storage. If HD is picked, it means minimal assembly-line updates and more profit for the disc manufacturers. If something totally different is picked, everyone is effed.

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