Who are they?
Japanese multinational manufacturing company jointly developed the Blu-ray Disc format with Pioneer. The first HD DVD players arrived in the US in June 2006.
Sony has ploughed a lot of time, money, and reputation into the format. In addition, they place strong emphasis on the Blu-ray capabilities of the PlayStation 3. Success of the format to Sony affects several core areas of their overall business: home entertainment, gaming, and content.
What they should do
Drop the petty point-scoring attitude and simply market the virtues of the Blu-ray technology itself.
Pay attention to the mainstream consumer, and downplay the PS3's role in Blu-ray.
Focus on other areas of their business which draws consumers into high definition: TVs, home cinema receivers, and content. Blu-ray is useless without the rest of the system.
What they'll probably do
Make a huge song and dance about how HD DVD has lost, forgetting that the fight is over a miniscule proportion of total optical disc sales. Blu-ray dominance isn't a foregone conclusion, with or without HD DVD.
What it means for us
A lot more crowing from Sony, of course. Well, they're possibly tipping the balance back in favour of formats they've invented that haven't died a death.
Blu-ray could still be "Betamaxed", though, so they needn't get too cocky.
This article is part of the HD DVD / Blu-ray Special Feature series
