After seeing off HD-DVD, Blu-ray outpaces DVD sales

Here's the latest indication of Blu-ray's market momentum: the number of Blu-ray players in homes in Western Europe will surpass ten million by the end of the year, putting sales of the new-generation player well ahead of DVD player sales at this point in its existence a decade ago, according to a new report by the UK's Futuresource Consulting. How far ahead? The Blu-ray installed base will be more than six times larger than DVD at the same point in its sales cycle, Futuresource says. The big boost, of course, comes from sales of Blu-ray-based PlayStation 3 consoles, but the non-gamer market is growing too.

"Comparing the first few years of uptake," Jim Bottoms of Futuresource says, "the early indications are that BD [Blu-ray] player sales are running way ahead of DVD after the same time period. 2008 represents year three for BD and ... we anticipate more than ten million players, including PS3, in use by the end of this year. Looking back to DVD’s early years, we see that closer to 1.5 million DVD players were installed by the end of year three."

Movie studio execs are already betting big on Blu-ray sales this year, expecting a $1 billion windfall from movie and TV series sales on the new format in 2008, Home Media Magazine reports. Each of the studios is expected to make a big push for the second half of the year with a series of new releases, making the players a more tempting offer around Christmas time. Also helping matters is that retail prices of players are continuing to fall, though not nearly as far as they would have had HD-DVD remained in the market for at least a few months longer.

Comments

[Mr. Farenheit]

Let's hope the high sales drives the price down. I feel I'm paying more to execs than I am to cover manufacturing costs.

[Michael]

This is all well and good but when are we going to be able to turn on our wide screen TV's and see all wide screen pictures instead of the usual old box shaped broadcast pictures?

[Michael]

I hate when they change the national format for watching movies. The only way that Blu-ray and HD-DVD format will be a good thing is if the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players support playing standard DVD's , i mean what are people to do that have spent years buying dvds and spending 1000's of dollars in dvd collecting thier favorite movies and tv shows, just let them sit on the shelf collecting dust because they want to invent something "better" or something diffrent thats crazy, anyway i think blu-ray players currently support standard DVD playback format, i just hope it stays that way other wise Blu-Ray should never be and people should boycott the discs

[Allen A]

I wonder about the longevity of blue ray now we can download hi def films and shows from various sources such as i tunes and Xbox live. Blue ray is just another marketing triumph from the big boys! Why pay £17.99 for a film when i can watch it foe less then £4????

[Mark]

I don't think Blue Ray has a serious future for film over and above new releases unless they come down to replace DVDs at DVD prices. iTunes style downloading etc. is the way forward as broadband picks up speed.