Steve Jobs has once again spoken candidly about his disdain for Blu-ray, explaining to a MacRumors reader in an email that the hi-def discs will be "beaten by internet downloadable formats".
Jobs, who seems to be responding to all emails at the moment including ones that begin with 'Dear respected one', showed he still has a bone to pick with Blu-ray, by refusing to believe the format was worthy of inclusion in Apple's latest Mac Mini range.
In the email, he noted: "Bluray [sic] is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD – like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats."
Okay, so it's not quite as vitriolic as his 'bag of hurt' rant, but it seems he is still not convinced by Blu-ray.
All about convenience
After the MacRumors' reader replied saying that this may be true for the long term but not medium term, Jobs came back with: "No, free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off.
"And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue.
"I think you may be wrong - we may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over."
Does Jobs know something we don't know? Has he really got an Blu-ray killer stuffed in his polo neck somewhere?
We're not convinced that iTunes rentals will kill off Blu-rays just yet.
Via MacRumors
