New Format, New Headaches, New Expenses?

While GE's 500GB disc breakthrough sounds wonderful, will consumers be willing to shell out money for a new disc format. Some early adopters are still licking their wounds after the wake of the Blu-ray versus HD DVD format war.

A micro-holographic format war may not be on the horizon (thanks to reverse compatibility), but will anyone out there really want to invest in a new format in 2011 or 2012 when GE hopes to see consumer devices on the market? There's also the question of whether there will be a big commercial demand for physical storage at all in the future when it comes to content distribution. Streaming content from sites like Hulu and YouTube will only become more popular in the coming years especially as streaming ability is embedded into televisions. Many people are also bypassing physical retailers of movies and CDs and turning to online services like iTunes and Amazon.