Sony and NEC create joint company: HD-DVD and BD

A recently announced joint venture between Sony and NEC to create a new company “Sony NEC Optiarc”. The company will bring together two differing next-generation media formats HD-DVD and Bluray. Both expected to be manufactured at the company.

In relation to the production of the new formats a NEC spokesperson said “Sony NEC Optiarc will take a neutral stance to both formats,” and a Sony spokesperson said “The company will make its judgment after monitoring the market’s trend.”.

It seems that Sony is hedging its bets in the optical disk manufacturing industry, this will give them leverage to produce both HD-DVD and Bluray devices. I wonder if this means Sony intends to produce Bluray drives with HD-DVD capabilities or vice versa? Purely speculative, I know, but very interesting in any case.

A recently announced joint venture between Sony and NEC to create a new company “Sony NEC Optiarc”. The company will bring together two differing next-generation media formats HD-DVD and Bluray. Both expected to be manufactured at the company.

In relation to the production of the new formats a NEC spokesperson said “Sony NEC Optiarc will take a neutral stance to both formats,” and a Sony spokesperson said “The company will make its judgment after monitoring the market’s trend.”.

It seems that Sony is hedging its bets in the optical disk manufacturing industry, this will give them leverage to produce both HD-DVD and Bluray devices. I wonder if this means Sony intends to produce Bluray drives with HD-DVD capabilities or vice versa? Purely speculative, I know, but very interesting in any case.