We were all bracing for a years-long war between the infamous Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, but when Warner announced it was dropping HD DVD in favour of becoming exclusively Blu-ray, it became clear that the war would be over before it could really unfold into something monstrous.

Now, thanks to Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits, we have a pretty pie chart of the devastation Warner's announcement has had on the suddenly eerily-quiet battlefield. The second chart represents hardware sales of Blu-ray and HD DVD (not including PS3/XBOX360 add-on drives) during the first week after the market had a chance to respond, and that small wedge could turn into a tiny sliver if the trend continues.

The obvious conclusion one can make is that HD DVD will not survive much longer, but keep in mind that there are still some very large corporations backing HD DVD, including Toshiba, which just recently cut prices on its HD DVD players shortly after the date the NPD Group data shows here. Presumably, this will raise the sales of HD DVD -- at least until mass consumers start hearing talk of HD DVD's void in studio support, if they haven't already.

I suppose the Best Buys of the world may need to staff up their Returns & Exchanges departments, not to mention get used to fielding angry phone calls from irate (though unfortunately ignorant) customers. My personal opinion is that buying HD DVD hardware now is just begging for a swift kick of obsolescence in the coming 6 months.