Kokul’s World

DigiTimes has reported that manufacturers of Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives have had to cut back on production because of a serious shortage of blue laser diodes. This means that the expected pre-Holiday flood of such devices onto the consumer market may not happen. DigiTimes is also claiming that Sony, which is one of a handful of companies making the diodes right now, just suspended shipments to other companies so they’ll have enough Blu-ray drives for the PlayStation 3. It’s not entirely clear how this is going to affect the balance of power in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray deathmatch — each format relies on 405 nm blue-violet laser diodes, so each may be equally affected — but it looks like the battle between the two may have to be postponed until next year. Wonderful, just what the consumer market needs; to be furthur surrounded in uncertainty and confusion on which format to pick.