Blu-ray player sales down despite format victory
Looks like it wasn't the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle that was keeping potential customers away from high-definition video players after all.
The NPD Group released some of its retail sales tracking data Wednesday that showed sales of Blu-ray standalone players (not a PlayStation 3, combo player, or PC with Blu-ray drive) had mostly decreased since the beginning of the year.
Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales in the U.S. decreased 40 percent from January to February and saw a very slight increase (2 percent) between February and March, according to NPD.
HD DVD players fared even worse--player unit sales dropped 13 percent from January to February, and 65 percent from February to March--which was expected. Toshiba stopped production of HD DVD units in February, and the format's promotional group disbanded in March.
So what does this mean for Blu-ray player vendors? Why haven't sales experienced any sort of substantial uptick without a competitor? Prices offer one clue. Blu-ray player prices were at their peak for the year in mid-March, around $400. During the holiday shopping season the average price had been closer to $300.
But more likely is what NPD's high-def video analysts have been harping on for a while: that DVD is "good enough" for most consumers. And that the picture offered by a Blu-ray Disc and accompanying player doesn't appear so overwhelmingly better than a standard DVD and an upconverting player that many consumers can't justify the dramatically increased cost.
To that point, sales of significantly less expensive upconverting DVD players have actually increased 5 percent over the first quarter of 2008, compared with the same quarter a year ago. Standard DVD player sales dropped 39 percent over the same period.
Blu-ray player prices are going to have to drop dramatically, to around $200 probably, to make themselves more attractive to consumers outside of the early adopter/home theater enthusiast crowd. Sony, one of the largest producers of Blu-ray players, says $200 players aren't likely until next year at the earliest.
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..."that DVD is "good enough" for most consumers."
This is sad. BR needs to get it together.
My A20 with all the firmware updates is completely trouble-free and the discs produce spectacular video and audio. Of course, we had to get rid of the one system that works and was relatively affordable.
The solution is simple: produce a reliable product that actually works and is affordable and consumers will buy it. Continue to hawk overpriced players with incomplete capabilities and discs that cost 2x to 4x the price of DVDs and most people will say "No Thank You."
Sony should market a videophile version of the PS3 that comes with the BR playback remote, and has the highest quality chip sets. At least those of us who value great video performance would buy them - provided, of course, the software is priced more reasonably than currently.
Personally, I am fine with upconverting players and look forward to promised "Super Upconverting" Player bu Toshiba that takes 9 frames of video and fuses them together to make a true 1920 x 1080 P frame.
If they can deliever real HD quality from regular DVD discs, that will be awesome!!
Let's see if they can deliver by next 6 months.