Blu-ray Association makes lofty claim: 3 years left for DVD

via ps3fanboy

Right on the heels of thinking that Blu-ray and HD DVD weren't considering taking over the DVD market until one of them consumes the other, the Blu-ray Association goes ahead and makes an incredibly ambitious claim. One that, arguably, will come true. See, when DVD started taking off, VHS tapes quickly became obsolete and sold for dimes on the dollar. The difference with this new shift in technology is that the hard format isn't changing -- both are discs and the DVDs can be played on the new-tech machinery right next to their HD counterparts.

As you may have guessed, the Blu-ray Association has claimed that in three years, DVD will have all but phased out. They didn't even have the sense to say that HD DVD will phase out -- they said only that "within three years it will just be Blu-ray." With Blu-ray already pulling ahead, who knows what'll happen in three years? Probably not a full abandonment of DVD, but it'll definitely be nearing its end.

Another interesting tidbit from the Reuters article: some skeptics of Blu-ray's success lay much claim/fault with the PS3 -- the fact that it counts as a Blu-ray player, specifically. The skeptics say that movie sales levels between the competing HD formats are fairly level, but the PS3 makes it seem like there's a bigger chunk of the niche market going towards Blu-ray. 20th Century Fox scoffs at this, claiming movie sales are at a ratio of 3:1 in the favor of BD. Hopefully that'll be enough on Blu-ray for a little while. Until something else comes up, naturally.