So you say I was wrong about not needing a new drive, but then concede that all it would need is a firmware update? Ok. And why wouldn't people upgrade their firmware? It's free. And easy as most Blu-ray players have Wi-fi capabilities for firmware updates and BD Live. But I guess you never update your PC or 360 when it's time, huh? And there's more money in making cheaper products at a larger profit then spend millions/billions backing new hardware, which will have a much smaller install base. Especially this early in Blu-rays life. That's why Blu-ray is around to stay for awhile.
Why the hate for 8-track? It was a success. Ask anyone growing up in that time period and they will tell you they had an 8-track player. Tapes came out the same time in the U.S. as 8-tracks, but were of worse sound quality, and were mostly used for dictation/voice recording. Starting in 1965, most cars were being installed with 8-track players, not cassette tape players. It wasn't until the early 70's that cassttes started to equal 8-tracks in sound quality. And not till the early 80's when it began it's huge boom, mostly thanks to the release of portable players, such as Sony's first Walkman in 1979.
And think of this, why would major retails and music companies keep 8-tracks on its shelves from 1965-1982, if it was such a failure? Must have been making money off of it, otherwise it would have just replaced them with cassetes. Now, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you are referring to Quadraphonic 8-tracks, as those only saw moderate success in the early to mid 70's.
Blu-ray may not have the same market share that DVD once had, but it has had more competetion, as well. DVD didn't have to compete against a new format (HD-DVD), as well as an old and very popular one. It just had VHS to battle with. Blu-ray also has the increase of DLC to compete with. However, in the next few years Blu-ray will have a majority share, again smaller than DVD's but still majority, over all formats. DLC is here to stay, and it will become more popular, but so will Blu-ray.
Another thing to think about is that Blu-ray is BC with DVD. This explains why Blu-ray hardware is being adopted faster than DVD was, but the software is not (though it is still rising). If a movie is released that doesn't show off the capabilities of Blu-ray, you have the option to just purchase it on DVD and it will still work on your player.
