Alright, it is the time of the year when I try to wrap up all the major events in digital video and technology that happened during the past year and also to take a quick look at what happened at AfterDawn.com as well.
Blu-ray and the death of the HD DVD
For the good portion of this decade, people following our niche have been anticipating the “next DVD format” to come. That finally happened in 2006, but the eve of the high definition optical video format was partly crippled by a format war. That format war finally ended earlier this year, when Toshiba gave up with its HD DVD format, marking Sony-backed Blu-ray the winner of the war. However, the prolonged development of the Blu-ray and the following format war delayed the potential adoption of the format so much that it remains a mystery whether the format will ever be able to replicate DVD’s success story.
Various net-based video services, such as Hulu have made significant gains in the United States during the 2008. As more and more studios, TV production companies and broadcast channels adopt net as one of their more significant distribution channels, such services pose a real threat to Blu-ray’s future in the U.S. It should be noted that due distribution contracts, smaller market areas and various localization issues, such services are rarity in most markets and in those markets, Blu-ray is often the only reasonable option for high definition video material. As a good example, here in Finland, the most HD channels you can get from any pay TV operator, is currently 10 and none of the major broadcasting channels provide HD material whatsoever. And of course Google is taking major steps into net video as well, specially after the introduction of HD material to Youtube earlier this year.
Result for: distribution contract
The large UK retailer Shopto has confirmed that a new PlayStation 3 bundle including the upcoming blockbuster game Grand Theft Auto IV will be hitting Europe on April 29th.
It was still unclear however who would be distributing the product in the UK. Gem, which has the exclusive distribution contract with publisher Take-Two, and Centresoft, the company that handles distribution for Sony seem the two likely candidates.
“We know for a fact it is coming out in Europe and we are expecting an announcement in the UK any time,” confirmed Igor Cipolletta, COO of Shopto.com.
“We are not sure if Gem or Centresoft are distributing it yet, that seems to be the hold up,” he added.
The bundle will have a MSRP of GBP 299 and will be on retail shelves the same day as the launch of the game.
Result for: distribution contract
According to a new iSHARE study, the 3G iPhone should have a hard time getting footing in Japan, the country where technology is light years ahead of the rest of the world.
91 percent of Japanese adults polled said they have no plans to buy the phone, at least not in the near future. The other 9 percent all planned to buy the device and many are SoftBank users, the carrier brining the iPhone at launch.
The same survey was done in July of 2007 and at that time almost 10 percent of those polled said they would buy the phone if their carrier made it available so it appears demand is somewhat down.
iSHARE did not have exact reasons for the low demand but did note that SoftBank is third in subscriber base and only 23 percent of those polled were current SoftBank users. NTT DoCoMo is the clear leader at almost 40 percent, but they do not hold an iPhone distribution contract.
77 percent also noted that they prefer a removable battery, something Apple refuses to do with their media devices. The largest hurdle will most likely be that the iPhone does not bring anything the Japanese have not seen already. 3G is standard on Japanese networks for both calls and data services and most new phones have Japan-only 1Seg digital TV and high resolutions such as 800×480. The iPhone will have neither when it launches.
