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ABI Research says that PS3s will account for more than 85 percent of Blu-ray players in use this year.
Blu-ray may have won the war, but it’s still in the fight—to get sales.
Research firm NPD Group says (via USA Today) that the demise of HD DVD hasn’t really helped Blu-ray sales much.
In fact, the report says that Blu-ray hardware sales dropped 40 percent from January to February. Also, sales only grew 2 percent from February to March.
However, that number excludes the number of PlayStation consoles, so the real number of players involved is a mystery. However, Sony says they sold 257,120 PS3s in March, doubling 2007’s numbers.
“When we surveyed consumers late last year, an overwhelming number of them said they weren’t investing in a new next-generation player because their old DVD player worked well and next-generation players were too expensive,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD. “It’s clear from retail sales that those consumer sentiments are still holding true.”
Another contributing factor seems to be that consumers are still waiting for players with web connectivity. This is one of the many reasons that consumers still prefer the PS3 over a stand-alone player. Because of this (and, of course, the gaming aspect), ABI Research says that the number of stand-alone players probably won’t surpass PS3s until 2013.
In February, Toshiba announced that it would abandon the HD DVD format by the end of March.
Christian, constantly calling other posters a moron is getting a bit old, please stop.
WalksInDarkness is absolutely right, most folks cannot see a big enough improvement to justify making the move to BR. This does not make them morons.
BR has a toguh row to hoe: the US economy is in trouble, and most folks will, wisely, forego discretionary purchases during such times. And let’s face it, having a BR player and a 1080p display is not a necessity, it is a luxury.
The ONLY way BR will “take off” is if they start to virtually give away the players in order to spur purchases of the software. Additionally, the price of that software MUST come down to near DVD prices or folks will simply not buy it.
Until this happens, folks are plenty happy watching their current up-scaled DVDs on their current display. Keep in mind, the American consumer is not the most savvy cat in the jungle, look at how many folks think “American Idol” is great entertainment…
-RW-
“BD is the tree, and NOBODY is there to hear it; except suckers like you! “
Well, I enjoy film resolution at home that loosk WAY better than Standard Def, and now have access to hundreds of rental Blu-rays at my local specialty cinephile store, for about $5 a pop for 7 days.
I also have a great (PS3) gaming machine, that is also (for one lowish price) a media server AND an awesome CD player and SACD player.
Yeah, I really feel like a sucker, but only because I didn’t buy one right away.
To add to my previous comments, I also believe that price will have to knock on the $200 for players (fully-capable players that work) and discs will have to be $15 or less. Period.
The discs most blu-ray owners purchase are the ones on 2 for 1 deals from Amazon, and new releases that are must-haves.
The movie industry could move this all along for copy-protection reasons so they can make more money in the long-run, but I guess they’d rather try to skim as much money as possible for now, and get more later.
In order of impact, I am sure the following are the reasons Blu-Ray machines are not a hot sales item.
1 - Cost is way too high. No way are we going to spend $300+ on a DVD player of any kind. We get surprisingly outstanding video on our new Sony 53W3000 from our standard $89 DVD player. I would be willing to spend max max $150 to upgrade to a high definition DVD format but even that is pushing it. I would instantly purchase a $99 machine if it was a good quality product.
2 - The target population of those needing a high definition DVD player is relatively very small. First, one has to already have an HD TV set to need one. Second, those who have an HD TV probably only have one. We have three standard DVD players in various rooms in the house but only one large HD TV.
3 - The cost of the high definition DVDs is just too much. We would probably use Netflix if we had a player so this would not have a significant cost impact on us.
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I recently sold my house including its built-in HT system, so I’ve been busy buying toys for the new house, such as a new 1080p TV and also a Blu-Ray player. However, after a couple of days of second thoughts, I returned the Blu-Ray player unopened and bought a simple SD DVD upconvert player. Why? For the same reasons that BillyBob posted earlier. The overall cost of the Blu-Ray player and BD movies just didn’t make good money sense to me. I believe $200 for a full-up Blu-Ray player is the right price point for many US consumers, not $400+. I’ll wait a while longer.