BizJournals Portfolio
Feb 28 2008 12:00am EDT

Blu-ray's Fatal Flaw?

Computerworld thinks that Blu-ray technology will tank, even though it has vanquished its chief competitor, HD DVD.

The magazine is probably onto something, and it has to do with the trade-offs people make between fidelity and convenience. In that model, the problem with Blu-ray is that its fidelity isn't so much better than DVDs that consumers will feel compelled to make the switch. And its convenience factor -- how easy it is to get and how cheap it is -- doesn't come close to comparing with DVDs. So Blu-ray is neither high enough fidelity or high enough convenience to win over a mass market.

And then, by the time the cost/convenience of Blu-ray gets to an interesting point, HD downloads and on-demand movies should come around and make discs obsolete.

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