An old saying says that the enemy of an enemy is a friend. Microsoft has declared Blu-ray an enemy thus making Apple their friend; for now.
Back in June a reader of Mac Rumors sent Steve Jobs an email asking about Blu-ray on the Mac. Steve responded with, "Blu-ray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD - like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats."
Now Microsoft is singing a similar tune; Stephen McGill, UK Xbox Boss, while being interviewed by Xbox Achievements said, "Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming."
Some of what Gill said has already started happening. A study by the NPD Group found that digital downloads for games beat out physical sales. From January to June of this year there were 11.2 million digital downloads for games and only 8.2 million copies of physical media were sold.
The same trend appears to be happening in the movie and TV market, with sites like Hulu and iTunes growing larger and offering more and more content. Digital downloads and streaming may really be the future of entertainment, but if that really is the case, those who use an ISP with a download cap will be at a great disadvantage.
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