After the director of electronics for Samsung said Blu-ray would be gone by 2013, it seems like a couple of different bloggers and journalists have also agreed Blu-ray will lose its relevance over the next few years. A recent article published on TechRadar lists five different reasons Blu-ray will be doomed in 2012.
The first reason cited is high-definition movie downloads, which are just around the corner, will make the need for expensive high-definition movie players obsolete. Microsoft's Xbox Live, Apple's iTunes and Vudu already offer HD movie viewing directly to the TV through the Internet, but the only thing that may delay HD movie downloads is the rate of adoption of broadband Internet. Even though many users now have fiber Internet or other high-speed Internet, broadband adoption in the United States remains lackluster.
Blu-ray Disc Live "is a joke," according to the authors of the TechRadar Blu-ray article. Indeed, the fact that BD-Live does not work on older players means that there are Blu-ray disc owners who have BD-Live capabilities but don't have a player that can support BD-Live.
Whether or not this is relevant, the authors of the article believe Samsung already predicting the demise of Blu-ray in five years is a strong sign that the format will peak soon. In addition, optical technology, according to Take Miyama, Sony product manager for home video marketing, has reached its peak and can go no further.
And the final reason Blu-ray will meet an early demise, according to TechRadar, is that DVDs will still be good enough for the average consumer, even in 2012. It seems true that most consumers today are willing to keep their aging DVD players rather than upgrade to an expensive Blu-ray player. But as more consumers begin to make the transition to high-definition TVs, it'll be interesting to see if they are also willing to spend cash on the lower cost of Blu-ray.
