Paramount has lowered the bar for acceptable behavior to customers, according to Robert Smith at TVPredictions on Sunday.

Mr. Robert Smith, the V.P. of Engineering at a Palo Alto, CA company, responded forcefully to Paramount’s decision last week to abruptly and without warning cancel its support of the Blu-ray HD disc format. The studio has terminated all distribution of movies on that title.

"The speed and violence with which Paramount dropped Blu-ray are stunning. Paramount had five titles already announced to retailers. Withdrawal notices were sent to retailers within hours. Blades of Glory, which was due this next week, was pulled back even though it had substantial preorders and reviewers had already received copies," Mr. Smith wrote.

In his editorial, Mr. Smith was hard pressed to find a similar example in the history of technology in which a vendor had done something similar. "Looking back further in the history of packaged audio formats, I cannot find a single example of a viable format being wrenched from customers’ hands....The unwritten rule has been: if a studio says it is supporting a format, and customers invest in that format, then the studio will continue to support it as long as there is a market demand."

A warning followed to beware of promises technology companies make. Mercurial marketing and contract decisions can cause grave inconveniences for consumers. "Consumers, regardless of their interest in the HDTV format war, should take note: Paramount has just lowered the bar for acceptable behavior to customers," Mr. Smith concluded.