December 1, 2005: The Blu-ray DVD group led by the entertainment giant Sony has announced that they would unveil specific launch plans of their format at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. However, the launch of drives and the discs in the market would only take place by spring 2006. Andy Parsons, a spokesman for Blu-ray said in a statement: “We’re sticking with the spring time frame.”

The Blu-Ray DVD group is competing with Toshiba led group, which is backing their own HD DVD format. And it becomes important for these two groups to come out with their product first in the market to get more consumers to check them out. Sony is already committed to ship their Playstation 3 gaming console with a Blu-Ray drive and that should really help them to get an advantage.

Parsons added: “At CES, you’re likely to hear some announcements from a number of companies as to when you’ll see our products on the market.” The Blu-Ray camp is supported by major entertainment industry giants like Disney, Fox, Pioneer, and Panasonic. However, HD DVD has the advantage of having the support of Microsoft, which powers more than 90% of the world computers through their Windows Operating System.