Robin Harris of ZDNet.com argues that because of a dwindling market share and the advent of easy high-definition download, Blu-ray is doomed.
"Delusional Sony exec Rick Clancy needs to put the crack pipe down and really look at the market dynamics," Harris said. "In a nutshell: consumers drive the market and they don’t care about Blu-ray’s theoretical advantages. Especially during a world-wide recession. Remember Betamax? SACD? Minidisk? Laser Disk? DVD-Audio? There are more losers than winners in consumer storage formats."
Harris also blamed Blu-ray's supposed demise on the protracted war with the HD DVD format, saying that the format war "squandered" initial enthusiasm for the new format. In addition, improved quality from standard has made it possible to deliver near high-def quality to HD TV sets, according to Harris.
But not everyone's measuring the coffin for Blu-ray. Engadget's Ben Drawbaugh conceded that physical formats would probably fade away some time in the future, but he added that the emergence of downloadable high-def programming is not a herald of Blu-ray's end times.
"Those who proclaim the death of Blu-ray will one day feel as silly as those who proclaimed the death of VHS in the 1990s because of the birth of VOD, because here we are over 10 years later and JVC just now stopped producing stand-alone VHS decks and combo units still sell," he said.
Toshiba, which championed the competing HD DVD format, stopped making HD DVD discs in February, citing major changes in the marketplace.