Will Panasonic drive Blu-ray to the Winner's Circle?

It just might turn out that way, since Panasonic is talking tough about it.

TWICE: Panasonic Execs Bullish On Blu-ray

Top executives of Matsushita Electric Industrial, marketers of the Panasonic brand worldwide, made pointed comments about the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war and current CE conditions to the press at the CEATEC Japan 2007 show on Tuesday.
The most direct remarks in roundtable discussions with the press were from Kazuhiro Tsuga, executive officer, who was reminded of his criticism of combination Blu-ray/HD DVDplayers in the past when he said that Panasonic “would never introduce such a stupid product.” When asked if LG and Samsung’s combi introductions have changed Panasonic’s mind, he joked that they haven’t “like those stupid companies.”
He then got serious and explained, “Fortunately we haven’t changed our mind ... we believe that movie studios” will select one format, namely Blu-ray sooner rather than later. When reminded that Paramount has decided to carry HD DVD, Tsuga was adamant, “Everyone knows that big [promotional] money from Toshiba or Microsoft has gotten backing for [HD DVD]. Major studios backing Blu-ray want us to put more money behind promoting the format” and its features “to make the market bigger.”

Long time readers (both of you) may remember what I said last year when Panasonic announced their support for Blu-ray:

To sum up: For those who watch for Signs of the Apocalypse, their worst fears were confirmed when last week Panasonic announced that they are climbing into bed with Sony and their Blu-ray technology. This marks a dramatic shift from Panasonic's historical business model of "Look at what Sony is building, and do the opposite." During the last format war between DVD-Audio and Super Audio-CD, Panasonic was a major champion of DVD-A (although calling DVD-A vs. SACD a "format war" is a little overblown, since both formats were essentially stillborn in the marketplace). Panasonic also proudly never built a MiniDisc recorder, and went out of their way to bury Betamax under a mountain of VHS-format VCRs.

No word yet on famine, rains of flaming toads, or the rise of Great Leviathan from the deeps

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I'm starting to think that Blu-ray will come out on top, and Panasonic will be the 800lb Gorilla that puts it there.

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