Toshiba's commercial release of its HD DVD players in the U.S. has ignited the era of high definition videos in living rooms for the masses. The Blu-ray will commercially launch only in a couple of months and those months that remain before will be enough to allow HD DVD to receive huge publicity among consumers and grab about 70% of high definition DVD players market by year end, believes research firm ABI Research. North America represents by far the most important market for the new high-definition formats, accounting for more than 60% of all HDTVs that ABI Research expects will be shipped during 2006.
The research firm believes that in the short-term future earlier entry to the market and substantially lower price tag will give HD DVD a lead over competing Blu-ray. By the end of 2006, according to the latest update to the firm's Consumer Electronics Research Service, Blu-ray players alone will account for only about 30% of the global high-definition DVD player market, which leaves HD DVD a huge 70% chunk.
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News source: Xbit Labs
