Blu-ray news keeps pouring in as more product/title announcements hit the wire, rumours are once again debunked, and the usual fray of optimism/pessimism with regard to Blu-ray, and consumer adoption, keeps the blogosphere active.
First, last week Apple unveiled its new laptop without the rumored Blu-ray Drive. Jobs also stated that Blu-ray is a "world of hurt" with regard to licensing and drive costs that he did not want to pass down to "their" consumers. Again, I will use ironic to describe these statements (ala the post last week about the Xbox 360 no-Blu-ray news/comments from MS executive) because the reality is that Apple products are not inexpensive in the first place. Apple prides itself as being on the leading edge of design and technology (and they charge "their" customers accordingly) and Blu-ray is certainly a "leading edge" technology! Oh well, on the positive side of this development, it was only two day later that a portable Blu-ray drive was announced that specifically targets MacBooks but also works with Windows PCs. Its stylish and at a price just north of US $250 it makes a great add-on.
There were also some very cool product announcements that emerged last week. Top of my "I want it!" list would be the Sharp Aquos LCD television with built-in Blu-ray player/recorder and Acer's reasonably priced, triple core, Blu-ray enabled, compact, desktop PC (that's a mouthful!) These items, as well as announcements for both BD readers, burners and software for the personal computer, only increase the ubiquity of Blu-ray in the consumer market. Combine the above with the way a) prices are dropping for players and b) the number of offers to bundle or discount movies when buying a Blu-ray player, indicate that we are setting up for a nice holiday season of increased market penetration for Blu-ray.
Regarding titles announced on Blu-ray, there are simply too many to post here! But feel free to checkout any number of blogging sites that make this their priority. Search "Blu-ray release dates" online and you'll be led to a number of options that list recently announced content.
About the optimism/pessimism in the headline, these writers are usually writing with a bias - either for or against. It is nice to see an obviously biased article against Blu-ray get absolutely trashed by in the comments posted by readers! Personally, it's when writers make uneducated or uninformed blanket statements about Blu-ray (whether intentionally being provocative or not) that I really get hot under the collar! There are so many factors that determine how, when, and why consumers adopt technology that any bold predictions (either for or against) should be taken with a grain of salt.
