“A year after it was launched in the US, the PlayStation Portable’s days as a hand-held movie-viewing device appear numbered. Disappointing sales have slowed the flow of movies on the proprietary Universal Media Disc to a mere trickle. At least two major studios have completely stopped releasing movies on UMD, while others are either toying with the idea or drastically cutting back,” Thomas Arnold reports for Australian IT. “And retailers also are cutting the amount of shelf space they’ve been devoting to UMD movies, amid talk that Wal-Mart is about to dump the category entirely.”
“Wal-Mart representative Jolanda Stewart declined comment on reports that the retailer was getting out of the UMD business. But studio sources said such a move was imminent. A check of a Wal-Mart store in Santa Ana, California, revealed a drastic shrinkage of UMD inventory. Several shelves of movies in the PSP section were gone; all that remained were seven UMD titles sitting bookshelf-style on the top of the PSP section, with no prices or other information,” Arnold reports. “Universal Studios Home Entertainment had stopped producing UMD movies, according to executives who asked not to be identified by name. ‘It’s awful. Sales are near zilch. It’s another Sony bomb – like Blu-ray,’ one executive said.”
MacDailyNews Note: Universal backs HD DVD, a lower capacity rival to Blu-ray (30Gb dual layer vs. 50GB dual layer respectively), along with Microsoft, Toshiba and others. Blu-ray is hardly a “bomb.” That’s just some plain ol’ FUD from Universal. The next-gen DVD war hasn’t even started, yet. Apple is playing both sides of the fence in a wait and see mode. According to a press release from April 17, 2005, “Apple is committed to both emerging high definition DVD standards—Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Apple is an active member of the DVD Forum which developed the HD DVD standard, and last month joined the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association.”
Arnold continues, “‘No one’s watching movies on PSP,’ said the president of one of the six major studios’ home entertainment divisions. ‘It’s a game player, period.’ Observers speculated that the studios released too many movies, too fast. But while sales were initially strong – two Sony Pictures titles even crossed the 100,000-unit threshold after just two months – the novelty quickly wore off, observers say. The arrival last fall of Apple’s video iPod only hastened the PSP’s decline as a movie-watching platform… But next week, Sony Computer Entertainment executives will begin making the rounds of the Hollywood studios to discuss plans for making the PSP able to connect to TV sets.”
Full article here.
Advertisements:
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
Blu-Ray or HD DVD? – March 10, 2006
Broadcom announces decoder chip that plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD – January 03, 2006
Forrester Research: Apple-backed Blu-ray will win over Microsoft-backed HD DVD – October 20, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘it looks as if HD DVD’s days are numbered’ – October 07, 2005
China to develop own as-yet-unnamed DVD format; Blu-ray vs. HD DVD vs ? – October 07, 2005
Paramount’s decision gives Blu-ray slight lead over HD DVD in next gen DVD format war – October 04, 2005
Record set straight on Blu-ray Disc Association’s superior high definition format – September 29, 2005
Microsoft backs cheaper, less sophisticated, lower capacity HD DVD over Apple-backed Blu-ray format – September 27, 2005
Twentieth Century Fox joins Apple, Dell, HP, others to support Blu-ray Disc format – July 29, 2005
Poll shows Apple-backed Blu-ray preferred by consumers over HD DVD for next-gen DVD standard – July 14, 2005
Microsoft allies with Toshiba on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc backers Apple and Sony – June 27, 2005
Apple joins Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors – March 10, 2005
UMD? What the heck is it?
too little, too late for UMD.
“UMD? What the heck is it?”
UMD is Universal MacDude syndrome. The unbelievable reaction that some people have when a long abusive relationship finally ends. The person who has been abused has a hard time relating to the new paradigm of freedom and longs for the old days of servitude and slavery, abuse and torture.
EVERYONE,
Try watching a full length 2hr plus movie on your Mobile Phone & iPod. Can you?
For short film may be yes. But for full length, like Lord of the Rings? I
I ever tried watching KungFu Hustler on Nokia Phone, after 5minutes, I give up. It’s more stressed than fun wathing on the tiny witty screen. If you really want to watch a full length movie, go home, watch it on your big TV, or monitor!
the PSP is a game player???
this is totally uninformed crap.. are you serious?? the thing has no games..
get a DS . seriously..
The PSP is a total dud because it tries to do 234 different things. ie. It DOES play movies.. but the games are shite.
I don’t think it’s so much that movies are unwatchable on a PSP but rather that buying PSP specific media (UMD) is the problem.
If you could download movies online and upload them to a PSP/iPod, stream them to a TV or simply watch them on a computer, I’m sure that would be far more successful.
Sony just don’t get it. Media is dead.
Yeh-heh-hehesssssss, I love it! Actually, I really can’t stand one part of this piece. From de second paragraph:
“Drastic shrinkage”.
Come onnnnn, Tommy! You gotta write with a little more sensitivity to those of us who recently swam in cold water. Or were frightened. Or accidently saw Joan Rivers nude.
Hey, look, it was before my interview in her trailer. I got there early. I saw too much. What can I say?
Lesson learned.
UMD, why University of Minnesota Duluth, eh.
What happened to MacDude?
Did he take the job at Taco Bell as I suggested?
You got it spot on Tom
And if you already own a huge collections of DVD’s why in the world would you buy the same movies again just to watch on the PSP?
Apple & Sony both entered the portable video market. Sony owns a studio and still got shat upon. I don’t see very many PSPs being sold, but I see tons of iPods. Podcasting, in it’s infancy, is now starting to get traction and iTunes/iPod is the choice method.
… and yet it seems Microsoft want to go exactly the same way with their portable, media, gaming, communication, video, computing, take over the world device which rather oddly is supposedly aimed at displacing the iPod, but then didn’t they say that the PSP was that too? One does wonder at times whether it is that Apple (SJ) is so good at getting it so right as much as the opposition getting it so badly wrong, not too difficult to percieve perhaps with doughboy Bulmer and Mr Charisma himself Bill Gates.
Doing a few things right in a very flexible manner is so much better than doing loads of things badly and inflexibly with all the extra overheads that entails too, and that despite Apple tying it somewhat to their own infrastructure.
First of all I like Sony, the PS3 should be a great addition to my home, but alas, the PSP has failed to create any real hype… Nintendo has and will always rule the portable gaming market. The DS is outselling PSPs insanely… Especially since Nintedo introduced the DS lite!!
DS is the future, PSP is… lacking?
It’s DRM that’s the problem – as the main studios, labels, Microsoft etc are discovering. It would be a huge problem for Apple too if they weren’t first in on the game.
The only way all these companies can beat Apple (and they sorely want too!) is to get rid of DRM (at least as it currently works). They’ll realise it sooner or later and act.
No, I took the Taco Time offer instead.
umd – the new minidisc
= UMD
Sony’s UMD was always going to ‘bomb’ when it ran-up against Apple’s ‘WMD’ – the video iPod and iTunes video.
Blu-Ray isn’t just a Sony format though is it? Notice how this “executive” throws out his FUD from behind the cover of anonymity.
He’s a spoon, nothing more.
MacDude, come back please.
We miss you.
“No, I took the Taco Time offer instead.”
Well if you took a job at Zantigo I would actually have gained a measure of respect for you.
PROPRIETARY SYSTEM, that’s what’s killing the PSP.
Lack of an internal hard disk.
Expensive proprietary flash memory sticks.
Limited support for putting your own content on the thing.
No compelling new games or technology.
An expensive platform for kids to buy and more than parents want to waste money on.
Proprietary disc drive mechanism and pricey media.
No iTunes-like software host for computers (poor connectivity).
Another iPod-killer, bites the dust. And the lesson to be learned? An industry giant can fail and fall from grace.
In spite of a seemingly bottomless pit of cash flow the same could happen to MS. They’re dependent on huge cash revenue to support the giant, what if the flow dropped by 50% or more? What if they throw a big Vista party and nobody comes? Are any of the Vista features worth a new computer or the hell of installing and learning new MS software?
Personally I think Blu-Ray is gonna bomb too. Just a feeling…
You should be able to buy a DVD and get all the other various formats included for FREE. Maybe this will be the reality when Blu-ray or HD-DVD arrive. The movie studios would sell more discs and customers wouldn’t have to buy content in more than one format. Sure digital downloads are the future, but until that happens give the extras for free.
Why not sell a DVD with the movie formatted for the ipod and other portable players included as one of the extras. “Extra” as in extra incentive to buy the DVD. Save consumers time by encoding it for them but don’t get greedy and charge. Raise the DVD price by $1 if anything.
No separate versions (full screen or widescreen), no multiple formats (DVD, UMD, etc). Just one disc with everything!
Blu-Ray will be a bomb, as well as HD-DVD. Too much DRM. Consumers won’t support either one.