Spring and early summer tends to be bit lackluster in the technology department. Consumers and technology pundits alike tend to have little to inspire them in the second quarter. Everyone is out enjoying their boats and barbeques since there is little to keep them indoors at this time of the year. Other than rehash all the cool stuff we are waiting for in the coming months, let’s review some of the crap from this year so far. Okay, so I don’t have enough room to go over all of the crap instead I’ll concentrate on some of the items that were underwhelming or should’ve been better than it turned out.

-Unexciting Format War

Long gone are the glory days of format wars. When titans of industry fight for consumer dominance with conflicting proprietary products. Sony seems always to be in the center of the arena- this time is no different. Except for the lack of excitement, even with early adopters. There are distinct camps in this war, Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Each is supported by entertainment and technology companies.

There is clearly defined difference between the two. However, at the end of the day consumers don’t care enough to make a difference. Few seem to notice their new HD televisions lacks HD content. So, these releases are only for early adopters who are willing to pay excessively and who care about the quality of what they watch. Something average consumers have again and again shown to the negative. Ease of use will always win out over quality. (MP3’s anyone.) And with the dual format VHS/DVD players on the market most consumers know it is only a matter of time before a 3^rd party vendor releases a machine with both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. That is if both formats survive long enough to matter. It’s a huge case of hurry up and wait since as HD sets penetrate the market eventually consumers will be wondering where to find HD movies. Until then be prepared to be underwhelmed by this lackluster fight.

There are those detractors who say consumers will be reluctant to convert their DVD libraries to the next gen-HD after already going from VHS to DVD. While this conversion may not come at the brisk pace with which DVD took over the video world, DVD’s will begin to show their age and lack of resolution in years to come. As new releases come readily to the HD world and DVD sales begin to wane, the public will have little choice but adopt High Def. It’s only a matter of speed, availability, and price.