By Craig Zammit
Massachusetts,USA: A new report released by independent market influence analytics company, Cymfony, reveals consumers may back Microsoft and Toshiba’s HD-DVD format rather than Sony’s Blu-ray technology, stirring concerns of another format flop for Sony.
The report titled ‘A Blue Christmas for Blu-ray’ analysed approximately 18,000 opinions from social media sites to try to determine the current consumer mind-set regarding the looming format war.
Most revealing was the seeming lack of praise for Sony’s Blu-ray format, with HD-DVD the topic of 46 per cent more positive discussions with twice as many favourable posts.
Surprisingly, many gamers find objectionable the inclusion of the Blu-ray player in Sony’s PlayStation 3 console, saying they are given no choice but to fork out the extra dollars for the Blu-ray player, regardless of whether or not they desire one.
“Sony’s plan to jumpstart Blu-ray adoption by building it into the PS3 was rejected by a significant segment of this audience,” the report stated.
“Users disparage Sony’s decision to build the Blu-ray player into the PS3 and praise Microsoft for offering the HD-DVD player as an accessory to the Xbox 360.”
However, the bad news for Sony didn’t end here, with many authors believing Sony was ‘arrogant’ and regularly questioned the electronics giant’s creditability as a technology innovator after the launch of mini-disc, beta-max, UMD, attrac and SA-CD formats all failed to reach their full potential.
Even so, Sony enjoys massive industry support for the format, with Apple, Dell, Sharp, HP, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Lionsgate Films, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment and more all throwing their weight behind Blu-ray.