Blu-ray's Clinton/Obama Problem
The high-def format winner has left some bitter foes behind.
By Swanni
Just ask Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
As the two Democratic presidential challengers escalate their fight for the nomination, many supporters of both tell pollsters that they will vote for Republican John McCain if their favorite winds up losing.
That prospect has Democratic party leaders desperately searching for a way to sooth hard feelings and heal the rupture between the two forces. If the Clinton and Obama camps fail to unite in the fall, the GOP candidate could capture a surprisingly easy victory.
The supporters of the Blu-ray high-def disc format could learn a lesson from the Obama-Clinton race.
Can't we all just get along?
From the spring of 2006 to February 2008, Blu-ray and rival HD DVD locked horns in an expensive and often bitter battle to become the leading high-def disc format. Company executives supporting each side frequently traded stinging criticisms that sometimes bordered on the personal.
Blu-ray and HD DVD backers such as Sony, Microsoft and Toshiba, invested hundreds of millions in seeing that their format would win. And many company executives put their career tracks on line by aggressively supporting one format over the other.
However, the fight came to an inglorious conclusion in February when Toshiba finally decided to end its financial bloodbath and pull the plug on HD DVD. (Toshiba last week said its profits fell 95 percent due to the failed HD DVD business.)
While Blu-ray is now the clear winner, the victory could be a Pyrrhic one unless it does something to heal the wounds with the HD DVD camp. For instance:
* Toshiba now refuses to manufacture Blu-ray players and even suggests that digital downloads will be the future, not hard disc media.
* Microsoft, while less bitter about the defeat, still hasn't committed to including Blu-ray in its product line, including the XBox 360 video game console.
* HD DVD owners now fill Internet message boards with hateful comments about Blu-ray and the future of high-def discs. (These are HDTV owners who once were solidly behind the concept of the HD disc.)
Blu-ray's victory has left the HD DVD forces feeling bruised and resentful. It's human nature. When you're defeated, you instantly harbor ill feelings about your opponent. Unless...
Unless that opponent immediately takes steps to make you a teammate rather than a combatant. And unless that opponent goes out of its way to be graceful in victory.
I submit that the Blu-ray team has failed on both fronts. Company executives have been a little too busy engaging in victory laps and self congratulatory board meetings.
If the Blu-ray supporters want to win, it needs Toshiba, Microsoft and the hundreds of thousands of HD DVD owners on their side. And today, not tomorrow.
Blu-ray backers, such as Sony, should offer HD DVD owners discounts on Blu-ray products -- and they should offer Toshiba and Microsoft (and other HD DVD companies) some substantial financial incentives to become Blu-ray companies.
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Swanni (Phillip Swann) is president and publisher of
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