Researcher predicts Blu-ray domination by 2008

Early market dominance and the PS3 presented as key to long-term victory.

Blu-ray FTW?

Blu-ray FTW?

Research firm Understanding & Solutions has been keeping tabs on the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray format war, and though the end isn't yet in sight, they're willing to place their long-term bets on Blu-ray.

Not content to just predict a winner and loser, U&S goes into some nitty-gritty details on their reasoning in an interview with Home Media Magazine. For instance, they clearly consider early market penetration to be a big deal: "We reckon something like a million players were shipped through into consumers' homes in 2006, including gaming formats. Of that 1 million, about 750,000 were PS3... [The PS3] is poised to be in virtually 25 million to 35 million homes in the next two to three years."

There are plenty more numbers bandied about to support this, like the fact that 80% of all next-generation HD format titles sold were in Blu-ray format, that more than 70% PS3 owners have expressed a strong interest in purchasing Blu-ray movies, or the firm's belief that Blu-ray players will venture under the $400 mark by the end of 2007.

So how long will this consumer-punishing format war drag on? Jim Bottoms, co-founder of U&S, predicts that "by the end of the year, we will see one format start to dominate... In reality, the only companies holding on to HD-DVD are Toshiba and Universal."

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