If you're a gadget freak, an announcement was made this week that might affect our world. In our blissful world of consumer electronics, format wars are nothing new: VHS vs Beta, LCD vs Plasma, iPod vs The Rest, Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, and on, and on, and on....
DivX, that pesky little company out of San Diego, is going public with an IPO. Until now, DivX seemed happy on the sidelines, offering quality video compression for storage, sending, clips for video production, stuff along these lines. Then YouTube and Google Video come along. Video compression and streaming are suddenly two married concepts and are hotter than a burning Pope doll.
Working against DivX is a published business model, or in this case, a total lack of one. But this is not to say that they do not have vision. Analysts close to DivX head honchos indicate that its their vision to create a "multimedia ecosystem permeating your home". This is significant because (1) they have big plans and (2) they have the technology to make a legitimate play for what they want.
A format war could be headed off if Apple buys DivX, or RealNetworks scoops 'em up, or even Microsoft may diverge from their normal practice and actually purchase them. I realize that they will be a strongly held public company at 27% public, but some feverish negotiations (read: threats) might encourage them to throw in the towel.
Then again, as you peruse the aisles in your local electronics store and notice the DVD players, alot of them are DivX enabled. In the first six months of this year, DivX collected $27.3 million in sales. Add this to the $460 Million from the IPO, and they just might have enough clout to engage in battle.
Streaming does seem to be gaining steam though, and you have to hand it to DivX, they seem to know what they're doing. So keep your eye out for DivX, gadget freaks. You'll be hearing alot more about in the coming months.
8 comments:
yawn... how about we go back to discussing religion? Or how about why Darwin's bed time gets earlier and earlier?
Come on! Don't give me that "Yawn" stuff! You know you're going to be streaming your ass off in the next year. Aren't you using your XBox to stream multimedia?
in the future yes, but I don't think it's blog-worthy. You do want some women to check out your blog, don't you?
Divx and Windows media are certainly big players, but you neglect Quicktime and only give passing mention to Real. This is not a two way race, heretic, err I mean, non-Quicktime believer.
I hope Quicktime will die a quick death soon. It's of no use to me, also Real Networks is a bust. Neither are accepted porn formats...
You're probably right, Eric. But what about HETERO porn?
yes, being quite familar with hetero porn I can vouch that most hetero porn videos are, in fact, in the .mpeg and .wmv formats. Quicktime is not a standard for porn, either is Real Networks.
DivX just seems to have that "little guy" feel. You sort of cheer for them due to the mamoth companies that their up against.
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