Sonic hopes that its switch will provide the Blu-ray movement with a real boost of confidence, so it would speed up the adoption process:
"Going forward, the group will direct its considerable format expertise on helping our professional customers fulfill the richly interactive promise of Blu-ray Disc including BD-Live, and aligning with a broader company strategy to enable the secure and efficient digital-distribution of video entertainment," CEO Dave Habiger said in a statement.
Sonic stated that it doesn’t plan to force HD DVD users to switch to Blu-ray (and will continue to provide software updates to the authoring software). However, the company did admit that promotions meant to lure customers on the Blu-ray side have been considered and the first one on the table will be to allow customers the exchange of an HD DVD system for a Blu-ray Disc system, for a limited period of time.
With Blu-ray already considered a sure-winner in the war, chances are that the transition will go smoothly. On the other hand, the companies need to make this change happen as soon as possible, due to the growing popularity of the high-definition streaming. If Blu-ray adoption doesn’t keep up, even the winner of the format war might find it difficult to compete against a foe that doesn’t require expensive hardware, but only a good Internet connection.