Samsung has announced that it will no longer produce new Blu-Ray player models for the U.S. market. That includes both standard and 4K Blu-Ray. Does this spell the doom of the format or has the news of its death been greatly exaggerated?
Of course, not every tech company has given up on Blu-Ray and 4K players. Notably, Panasonic and Sony have given no indications that they’ll stop. But a big name like Samsung giving up seems like a bad sign. After all, Blu-Ray never completely overtook the DVD format it was meant to replace. DVDs still greatly outsell Blu-Rays. Is it possible they’ll outlive the Blu-Ray as well? Remember how laser discs were supposed to replace VHS?
But Blu-Ray’s greatest competitor isn’t a device at all. It’s streaming. More and more people are buying and renting their movies over streaming platforms, or waiting until they come to their favorite subscription streaming service. The quality of streaming movies doesn’t approach the quality of video you get from a Blu-Ray, but not everyone is very worried about seeing every microscopic detail of the movies they watch. And streaming is getting better at that anyway.
In our current technological landscape, every type of tech has an expiration date. It’s up to companies to decide when to give up on a certain product in order to focus on the next thing.
