Blu-ray: Time To Upgrade to HD?

by Dean Evans at Wednesday 25th February, 2009 at 8:16 am [0 comments]

After a rocky start, the latest data from Futuresource Consulting suggests that Blu-ray Disc (BD) sales should steam past the 100 million mark this year.

What makes this significant is that it could re-cast Blu-ray from an early adopter technology to a mass-market buy. It’s not yet made the transition to supermarket impulse purchase, but we can’t be far off.

“In the USA, BD has moved from early adopter phase through to early majority With the format gaining real traction in the marketplace,” says Mai Hoang, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting.

“The UK is the largest market for BD in Western Europe,” Hoang adds. “With sales of more than 3.5 million units in 2008, it represented over 40% of the West European total.”

Cheap Blu-ray players

Blu-ray player prices have tumbled in the past 12 months. The Sony BDP-S350B and the Samsung BD-P1500 are both sitting pretty under £200 in the UK.

The PlayStation 3, meanwhile, is still one of the best Blu-ray players on the market.

According to Mai Hoang, several high-profile marketing campaigns in the UK have waved the flag for Blu-ray and high-definition. ”Factor in Sky’s high profile approach to marketing its HD service, and to a lesser extent the BBC/ITV joint venture, Freesat, and the cumulative effect has made a substantial impact upon the marketplace.”

“With more than 1100 BD titles to choose from,” adds Jim Bottoms, Managing Director at Futuresource, “the rise of Blu-ray will offset rapidly declining sales of standard DVD product.

“By 2012, around 50% of US and 35% of Western European video disc retail sale volumes will be Blu-ray.”

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