HD DVD Died, Smartphones thrived
February 7, 2009 Computer News
Early into 2008, the seemingly interminable duel between HD DVD and Blu-ray officially ended when Toshiba waved
the white flag and declared it would stop producing HD DVD players. Shortly thereafter, the studios still backing HD DVD withdrew their support and said they would get behind Blu-ray.
But while Blu-ray won the battle, it hasn’t yet won the war. The growing popularity of digital downloads, combined with the relatively high prices of Blu-ray players and discs vs. inexpensive, so-called upconverting DVD players, kept many consumers away.
Apple unleashed its iPhone 3G to great fanfare, with at least three high-profile competitors – T-Mobiles Gi Android phone, RIM’s BlackBerry Storm, and Nokia’s upcoming N97 – immediately cast as possible “iPhone killers.”
Also battling it out for market supremacy were makers of Netbooks, the one product boosting the PC industry’s fortunes among rough conditions.
The economic downturn loomed large in corners of the gadget world beyond the PC market, however, with layoffs hitting gadget and game makers including Sony, TiVo, Electronic Arts, and Motorola.
Among consumer electronics retailers hit hard was Circuit City, which filed for bankruptcy protection after a series of poor earnings reports, and after entertaining a $1 billion buyout bid from Blockbuster.
Consumers did enjoy sizable bargains on HDTV’s, which so far appear to be avoiding a recession-related hit.
Those hunting for MP3 players also got nice price cuts on Microsoft’s flash-based Zunes.
Comments (1)
The processor chip is branded as just a bit newer design amount but it and also the GPU are likely the similar speed since the 3GS. The old Touch using the similar Processor and GPU as the 3G was faster. Apart from getting the clock speed turned up greater the Touch has less software programs to run because it