It seems as though past format battles have instilled cautiousness into consumers and manufacturers alike; neither want to back a lame horse.
But what if both the front runners are unfit?
On a weekly basis, we see song and dance from members of both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD camps, citing triumphs over each other. For example, Blockbuster recently announced that it'd be expanding its Blu-Ray rentals into more stores, but not HD-DVD. But on the other hand, Toshiba's aggressive HD-DVD player pricing is helping shift units.
Business Week has a look at the current state of play, weighing up factors like the PS3, backing from Hollywood and PC-based HD players. Its conclusion is that it could be a while yet before a winner emerges, and that those backing the winner will probably come out of the race trampled anyway.
Of course, with the DRM infection rife in both formats, whoever wins, we all lose. Except, with a steady growth in DRM-hating types spreading the word that freedom is the answer, perhaps we'll all resort to downloading HD content from whatever clever web-2.0 upstart decides to offer it up in a nice, accessible, DRM-free way. Perhaps it really doesn't matter which format wins...
