Why even call this a format war?

Okay, so it's the middle of November, and every week, I'm getting five kilos of flyers dropped in my mailbox.

So what are retailers telling me, the consumer, about Blu-ray or HD-DVD?

Virtually nothing.

Future Shop, Best Buy, and Visions all have the Samsung BP-D1000 sandwiched deep in the middle pages of their ad, with no fanfare, only half a paragraph of exposition explaining what Blu-ray is, let alone why this unit costs a thousand bucks, when there are DVD players on the same page for $87.

Off topic, but Future Shop, despite being a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy is $200 higher on this unit than the Big Blue Box. Right hand, meet left hand.

Tellingly, none of these retailers has even a single Blu-ray title advertised in their Run Of Press.

That's okay, the three traditional CE retailers can gain synergy with Wal-mart (the dark horse #2 CE retailer in North America). Wal-mart's ROP has an entire half page devoted to Blu-ray titles, ten of them, from $28.83 to $34.83. No explanation of what Blu-ray is, nor how they differ from the $17.83 DVD titles above them.

Do you think some Wal-mart shoppers might purchase Blackhawk Down for $28.83 and then have to return it when it doesn't play in their $87 RCA DVD player?

Wait, it gets better. Wal-mart doesn't even have a Blu-ray player for sale in their ad.

Do you think even if Wal-mart has a Blu-ray player in their store, the poor, downtrodden soul in their electronics department will be able to explain the features and benefits?

Oh wait, did I mention that HD-DVD makes no appearance anywhere in the flyers surveyed this weekend?

Summary: the surveyed retailers don't seem eager to tell the manufacturer's story, nor to promote either format to consumers with any enthusiasm.

In fact, it looks to me like retailers are already giving up on the format war before they've even dug into the critical selling season.

And with offerings from several manufacturers delayed, possibly even missing a December launch, who can blame retailers for their apathy?

It looks like it's going to be a cold, lonely Christmas for both HD-resolution disc formats.

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