[opendtv] In Sony's Stumble, the Ghost of Betamax

In Sony's Stumble, the Ghost of Betamax

By KEN BELSON
The New York Times
February 26, 2006

AT first glance, Amir Majidimehr does not look like a game-changer in 
the battle to develop the next generation of DVD players and discs. 
As the vice president for Windows digital media at Microsoft, he 
neither steers a Hollywood studio nor controls one of the many 
consumer electronics giants that are betting billions of dollars on 
one of the two new formats that promise to play high-definition 
movies and television shows.

Yet when he and his team in Redmond, Wash., decided last September to 
abandon their neutral stance and to support Toshiba and its HD-DVD 
standard over the Blu-ray format led by Sony, the unexpected change 
of heart reverberated through the technology industry.

Suddenly, Toshiba's seemingly quixotic defense of its format had new 
life. Intel joined Microsoft in backing HD-DVD. Hewlett-Packard 
withdrew its exclusive support of Blu-ray. This month, another member 
of the Blu-ray camp, LG Electronics, hedged its bets, too, signing a 
deal to license Toshiba's technology.

And earlier this month, one of the main reasons underpinning 
Microsoft's move to shuck its neutrality - the complexity of 
producing Blu-ray technology - led to Sony's acknowledgment that it 
might delay this spring's scheduled release of its PlayStation 3 game 
console partly because the needed technology was still being worked 
out.

The possible delay and the Blu-ray group's loss of its 
once-commanding lead are not encouraging developments for Sony in its 
attempt to revive its electronics group after a series of bungles. 
PlayStation 3 is crucial to Sony's future, and not only because the 
latest version of its gaming consoles could generate billions in 
revenue; the new machines will include disc drives that will turn 
them into Blu-ray DVD players as well.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/business/26disks.html?ex=1298610000&en=b5a667fa8752b9a0&ei=5088


 
 
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