????你是不是認為物理介質即將退出市場？索尼（Sony）和松下（Panasonic）可不這么看。

????據《華爾街日報》（The Wall Street Journal）報道，本周早些時候，索尼和松下宣布簽署一項協議，將于2015年推出更先進的存儲光盤，容量高達300GB，是目前藍光光盤容量的5倍之多。兩家公司做出這個舉動的原因很簡單：電視技術正從1080p向更高標準的4k演進，而4k圖像的像素數幾乎是1080p的4倍。更高分辨率的節目內容意味著尺寸更大的文件，同時，對物理介質的容量需求也會大大提升。

????索尼和松下都能從中得到不少收獲。推廣一種全新格式的光盤能帶動兩家公司下一代光盤播放器的銷售。這對于索尼而言無疑是一個福音，因為它的電子部門近來一直持續虧損。

????消費者會買賬嗎？支持者肯定會言之鑿鑿地說“當然”。藍光銷量就是堅強的例證。雖然DVD銷量持續下滑，但藍光銷量卻一路攀升。鑒于節目內容不斷豐富，售價持續下調，在這兩大因素的刺激下，藍光光盤的銷售額在2013年第一季度同比大漲28.5%。這對索尼和松下而言是個好兆頭，不是嗎？

????從目前來看沒錯。但就像許多人所指出的，內容下載和流媒體播放已是大勢所趨。凱鵬華盈（Kleiner Perkins）合伙人瑪麗?米克在最近的報告中指出，從2008年到2012年，全球上網人數增長了8%，達到24億人。這個數字只會繼續增加。2013年第一季度，數字媒體的銷售額同比去年大漲26%。（與之形成鮮明對比的是，包括DVD在內的實體媒體去年的銷售額下滑了10%。）此外，隨著Netflix等流媒體公司的會員人數持續增加，顯然，長期來看，越來越多的消費者將傾向于使用Roku盒子、蘋果電視和互聯網電視，而不是存儲極限不斷提高的下一代光碟。（財富中文網）

????譯者：項航

????Thought physical media was dying? Sony and Panasonic think otherwise.

????Earlier this week, both tech companies announced an agreement to develop an advanced optical disc due in 2015 capable of storing over 300 gigabytes (GB) worth of data, according to The Wall Street Journal -- five times the amount Blu-ray discs can currently hold. Their rationale: as television technology migrates from the current 1080p picture quality standard to 4K -- images with roughly quadruple the number of pixels onscreen -- this kind of higher-definition content translates to larger files and demands, the case of physical media, much more space.

????Doing so behooves Sony (SNE) and Panasonic (PCRFY). Popularizing yet another disc format could in turn spur sales of next-gen disc players from the two companies. That would be a boon in Sony's case, at least, given its electronics division continues to lose money.

????But will consumers want it? Proponents will argue "Yes, of course." And they'll point to Blu-ray sales as Exhibit A. While DVD sales tumble, sales of Blu-ray discs are rising. In fact, Blu-ray revenues jumped 28.5% year-over-year in the first quarter 2013, likely due to a combination of a growing content catalog and lower prices. Surely, that's a sign in Sony and Panasonic's favor, no?

????In the short-to-medium term, sure. But as many have already figured out anecdotally, content downloading and streaming appears inevitable. As Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker pointed out in a recent report, the number of global Internet users climbed 8% to 2.4 billion between 2008 and 2012 -- a figure that will only grow. Spending on digital distribution spiked 26% during the first quarter of 2013 compared with the time time last year. (Meanwhile, overall sales for packaged media, including DVDs, declined 10% last year.) And with content-streaming companies like Netflix (NFLX) continually adding subscribers, it's obvious the long-term involves more and more people cozying up to Roku boxes, Apple TVs and Internet-ready television sets than next-gen optical discs with ever-rising storage limits.