I hadn’t gotten mine so I called them tonight.  They had some issues with my address not matching my Reward Zone address.  Sheesh.  I only moved two years ago.  I have been trying to get my address changed with them for two years!  It keeps flipping back to my old address.  Anybody else out there having issues with their Reward Zone account?  Drop me an email kevin@flickscribe.com or leave a comment. 

According to an analyst at ABI research the end of the format war was not the true measure of consumer demand when it came to the choice of HD format. The true decision was made by Warner brothers decision to jump ship to Blu-ray. The decision to switch may have been principally decided not by which format the consumers of Warner’s preferred, but by a nearly $120 million payoff from Sony.

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Well, it’s just a bunch of whining at this point and sure, maybe they did make a payoff. That’s called business and Microsoft has done same thing a million times over. Here’s a good article to read about the whole thing.

Both formats had good technology. It was the key relationships which Sony nurtured and cultivated that ultimately won the day. Yes, technology was a factor. However, the big decisions in business are made by people who make decisions for emotional reasons. Sorry about that, my die-hard techie friends. It ain’t about the technology. (I know, bad English but true). It always has been and always will be about relationships. Cultivate these and you build Relationship Marketing (R-Commerce).

Achieve key wins which stack up to an insurmountable victory

Sony didn’t win only one battle in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD fight. They won several over a period of time. You can’t win the ultimate prize with only one knockout blow (sorry, Hollywood — it just doesn’t work that way in the real world). Don’t rest on your past victories. Each day, you face anew the opportunities to engage in competition and learn and grow no matter what happens. Become a better person with each day’s results.

Lower prices don’t win the day

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Oh, and don’t forget that Blu-Ray did very well in disc sales too. Almost 2:1 in some cases.

Well, it’s official. After pretty much every major studio backed the Blu-Ray technology format, HD DVD died a slow and agonizing death. As it lay in it’s bed on life support, Toshiba stepped in a pulled the plug. I also believe there is a no resuscitate order.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

Source

So there you have it. Blu-Ray is now the winner of the format war. Ha Ha Ha!

Sorry, I just have been waiting forever to say that. After all…I bought a PlayStation 3 pretty early on. I spent my nights crying while X-box 360 people were bragging about Transformers on HD DVD and playing games. Every so often when I was really down and thinking my PS3 was just a piece of junk, that single blue light would wink at me. So I hung in there time after time. Blow after blow. I feel like Rocky taking shot after shot, but finally winning in the end.

Long live Blu-Ray!

Toshiba, HD - DVD development production extensive stop present withdrawal announcement

Toshiba on set the policy of stopping the development production of the new generation DVD product which is based “HD - DVD” standard extensively. It is the direction where also product sale discontinues the end of March in aim. It examined also the reduction plan which is squeezed in for the player (re-gray fabric) and Europe, but that in the circumstance which cannot anticipate future software spread also support of the customer profit is difficult it judged, decided withdrawal extensively. Because of this, SONY and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. recommend the new generation DVD market which two standards dispute in “the blue ray disk (BD)” it is unified. 19th in the afternoon, President thick Satoru Nisida interviews, the reporter adjusts to the construction of the semiconductor new factory and announces. As for development production of player and recorder (video recording re-gray fabric) instantaneously stop. Passing such as American Hewlett Packard (HP) the conference of principal customer concerning the recorder for the personal computer, it decides, but Toshiba is the thought of conveying the intention of production stop same as the player et. al..