March 12, 2008: The Format Wars Are Over (For Now)

Mac and PC. Coke and Pepsi. Paper and plastic. Format wars have been with us for a long time, and resolution is rarely neat.

Well, except for VHS and Betamax. And it looks like the HD DVD and Blu-Ray will see a similar wrap-up. Wal-Mart, Warner Brothers, Netflix, and Microsoft have all switched over to support Blu-Ray, and last month, Toshiba -- who had been HD DVD's primary proponent -- announced that they would no longer produce HD DVD devices. Of course, canny tech observers have known the winners for months, ever since Disney made their choice to favor Blu-Ray last August.

Where the Mouse goes, so do the kids . . . and their parents.
-- Paul Chapman