Phil Elliott
11:22 (BST)
19/02/2008
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PlayStation 3 sales hit 10.5 million
Console effect gave Blu-ray a massive lead over HD DVD
Sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 console have surpassed 10.5 million globally, completely dwarfing the estimated HD DVD installed base of 1 million - and that's without taking into account standalone Blu-ray players.
As the fallout of Toshiba's decision to cancel further production of its HD DVD format continues the extent of the disparity between the relative proliferation of the next generation DVD formats is becoming clear.
But while there is likely to be frustration for those consumers that already opted for HD DVD, a clear format winner will be positive overall according to one analyst quoted on Yahoo! News.
Tokyo-based Credit Suisse analyst Koya Tabata said: "If true, this will be good news for the next-generation DVD industry in clearing up the confusion for consumers because of the format competition that had curbed buying. This will work toward a profit boost for Sony."
Market research firm BCN Inc reported that Blu-ray accounted for 96 per cent of sales by volume for the technology in Japan in the last quarter of 2007.
Neither Sony nor Microsoft have yet made any substantial comment following this morning's announcement by Toshiba, but it is thought that Microsoft will be happy to continue to champion its Xbox Live Video Store download service and may opt not to bother releasing a Blu-ray peripheral for the Xbox 360.
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