Apple Backs Blu-ray

zaxios writes "The New York Times is reporting that Apple has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, and will use Blu-ray in upcoming versions of iMovie and Final Cut. The move puts Apple among Sony, Matsushita, Dell, HP and Walt Disney in supporting Blu-ray; companies including Toshiba, NEC, Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Universal and Paramount are pledged to adopt the competing HD-DVD format. Apple's support confirms Blu-ray's future dominance on the desktop, but the division in Hollywood and notebook manufacturers between the two HD videodiscs will ensure the bona fide format war we were all secretly pining for."

Comments

The invisible elephant

[daveschroeder]

Forget about Sony, HP, Matsushita, Apple, Dell, and Disney...

The porn industry, which releases 11,000 titles a year, will likely silently decide which format "wins" (previous slashdot coverage).

And some of the bigger porn houses are coming down on the side of Blu-ray because of its capacity advantage over HD-DVD. That the porn industry would have such an influence comes as no surprise to those who know just how big the industry really is.

Sucks to be an early adopter

[Eradicator2k3]

When you consider that DL DVD drives have been out for some time (reasonably priced), yet the media still costs about 10 bucks a pop, can you imagine what the Blu-Ray (or HD) discs will go for? At the risk of dating myself (not like anyone else would, HA), I was an early adopter for the *new* high-density 3.5" floppies at about $80 for a box of 10.

Realistically, once the next-generation drives and discs are out, it will lower the price of DL media into something more affordable.

Re:Not really...

[porcupine8]

But in this case, I don't think you need causation. If Apple is just really good at picking winners, then that has the same effect on blu-ray predictions as Apple being really good at causing winners. Either way, if Apple backs a technology there is a very high chance that it will be successful, whether or not it's Apple's fault.

And with something like this, it could become causation - Apple builds up a good track record of picking winners, other companies notice this, and when Apple makes their pick other companies start to mirror them based on their past performance, thus making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.