It’s been pretty clear for a while now that blue lasers are the future of optical storage. They use a much shorter wavelength of light than the red lasers that are used in CD and DVD players right now, meaning that more bits can be squeezed into the same physical space. The first high-definition DVD players and recorders are already being rolled out, but there’s just one problem: none of the manufacturers can agree on a standard, so there are now four or five different competing blue-laser formats being pushed. Which just like the whole DVD-R versus DVD+R fiasco is only going to mean confusion for consumers and lower profits for electronics companies.
