Blu-ray, those fancy blue laser DVD drives, should be then next big thing, but perhaps only in Japan. According to a representative from Toshiba, the Japanese electronic industry believes that American households are far more apt to choose Tivo over any other recording medium. True, Tivo is perhaps the ubiquitous form of digital recording, but doesn't easily allow for massive archiving. Blu-ray would, and could be the perfect media to store all of those shows you want to keep. But Blu-ray might not see the United States for quite sometime.

It is believed that the Japanese consumer will have far greater desire for Blu-ray than their American counter part. As a result, Blu-ray burners will only make their debut in Japan, for the time being at least. Though there may be some truth to these works, as the Japanese people are perhaps the most tech-savvy people in the world, it makes little to no sense from a marketing standpoint. Blu-ray is essentially saying to North American consumers "You really don't eat this, do you?", when market research should dictate sales forecasting figures. And since Blu-ray will be competing with HD-DVD, there is the perfect opportunity for HD-DVD to gain significant market share in North America.

There is also the consideration that the price point of Blu-ray burners may deter most North American consumers, since these writers start at about $1000 USD.