The article linked says that the blu-ray discs 50 GB maximum that Sony claims isn't acheiveable yet. Maybe Microsoft is giving more HD-DVD hype, but the only real counter to it is blu-ray hype that isn't really any more credible. It seems like both formats are a lot of smoke and mirrors, but nothing really definite yet. I agree that HD-DVD is probably not really closer to market than blu-ray, but until things get closer, its a bit premature to say one is better than the other. All we really have to go on is marketing hype and what major studio/manufacturer is backing who.
What I would like to see is a unified standard. There were some talks between the two groups, but they didn't produce anything. But hopefully something will come up and have one unified standard that has the best of both worlds. But I guess I won't be expecting them to actually happen.