Toshiba dumps HD DVD format for good; Blu-ray emerges the winner

Now that the nation's largest retailer has dumped the HD DVD format, its creator, Toshiba, seems to finally have taken the hint and wants out of the HD DVD business. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), which can make a merchandising decision and have an effect on an entire industry, has done just that within the next-generation optical disc format that will replace the standard DVD someday.

Time Warner announced earlier this year that it would back out of the HD DVD format soon, Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) indicated that it would slowly stop selling HD DVD as well, and now the final death knell -- Wal-Mart. So, by the end of 2008 (if not before), consumers will finally have one high-definition optical format to choose from and the industry can rally behind it and finally put a worthless format war to rest. Unlike the VHS-Betamax war of the 1980s, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) wins this one since it is the primary technical backer of the Blu-ray format..

So, there you have it -- one format finally emerges the victor. Will the triumph of Blu-ray finally mean increasing fortunes of consumer electronics manufacturers now that a single format can be marketed to consumers? How about Sony, which can now trumpet the Blu-ray capability of its money-losing PlLayStation 3 game console and try to make up for lost opportunities in the gaming market? The good news is that the consumer electronics camp can now price and market Blu-ray as the successor to DVD, lower disc prices and player prices, and urge a whole new generation of purchasers to 'upgrade' to another format yet again. Expect another format sometime in 2018, perhaps called Red-beam or something like that -- and the process will repeat all over again. That is, unless downloads haven't toasted much of the physical media market by then.