Apple set to ship Macs with Blu-ray support - report
Apple Inc. at this month's Macworld Expo will will outline a high-definition video strategy that will see its weight thrown further behind Sony Corp's Blu-ray DVD format as opposed to Toshiba's HD-DVD, according to one Wall Street analyst.
Context & Ripple Effects
The report lands days before Macworld Expo 2008 and rests entirely on one unnamed Wall Street analyst's claim that Apple will throw its weight behind Sony's Blu-ray format over Toshiba's HD-DVD — unconfirmed by Apple itself. It arrives in a dense run-up of Macworld speculation: iLounge reported last week that Apple is readying an HD Radio push for the show, while separate rumors point to an iPhone software update with copy-paste and even a touchscreen MacBook tablet debut.
If the analyst is right, the significance is format-war arithmetic rather than hardware news: through late 2007 the high-definition disc battle between Sony and Toshiba has lacked a clear verdict, and Apple — whose Macs had shipped without either HD format — is one of the few platform vendors whose endorsement could tip OEM and studio calculations.
First-order effects
- Mac buyers would gain a built-in path to high-definition optical media, ending Apple's absence from the HD disc market on the computer side.
- Sony's Blu-ray camp would add the industry's most visible design-led computer maker as a backer, while Toshiba's HD-DVD camp loses ground in the contest for pre-installed drives.
Second-order effects
- Other PC makers would face pressure to follow Apple's lead or explain why their machines ship with the losing format, accelerating consolidation of OEM support behind whichever disc standard Apple names.
- Hollywood studios' exclusivity decisions become easier to price once the computer channel — a major disc-sales outlet — looks likely to standardize on one format.
Third-order effects
- If platform-vendor endorsements keep deciding the HD disc war, optical-format competition collapses into a two-horse race settled by a handful of OEM announcements rather than consumer choice — though Apple's parallel investment in downloaded HD video leaves open whether its Macs ever lean on discs at all.
The trend: The high-definition format war is being decided less by consumers than by a few platform vendors whose format endorsements carry outsized weight across PCs and living rooms.