Retailers, buyers await winner of Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD

BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Backers of the Blu-ray DVD format may think the war with Toshiba's HD DVD technology has been won, but retailers do not see Warner Bros. studio's endorsement of Sony's technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as a final salvo.

"I don't think we're in a position to go out and declare a winner," said Steve Eastman, Target Corp.'s vice president of consumer electronics, in an interview. "Until it settles completely I think we're going to continue to see consumers sitting on the sidelines."

That is bad news for the development of a much-needed multibillion dollar industry. U.S. sales of DVDs, which are crucial to Hollywood studio profits, fell 4.8 percent to 15.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, the first significant drop since the format was introduced, according to preliminary Adams Media calculations.

"It would be our hope that by this Christmas there would be a clearer choice for the customer, instead of battling back and forth" between the formats, said Gary Severson, senior vice president in charge of electronics for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s U.S. stores.

Circuit City Stores Inc. and Best Buy Co Inc. (indicated no plans to change sales strategy after the Warner Bros. announcement, although they said it was a signal that the industry was closer to backing one unified standard.

"We are very excited to see progress of any type, and we see this as significant progress," said Circuit City Chief Executive Officer Phil Schoonover at CES.

Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson also said at the conference that the decision makes it "a lot easier to see the likelihood that we get to one format, and it makes it easier for us as retailers to help push it to that one format."

(Agencies)