With the format war done and dusted, industry analysts had understandably expected a steady rise in the sales of Blu-ray players as the only choice for next-gen movie viewing. But this apparently is not the case.
Sales tracking data released this week from the NPD Group have shown a serious decline in sales figures for standalone Blu-ray players (PS3, Blu-ray-enabled PC and combo players notwithstanding). Stateside, sales were down a whopping 40 per cent from January to February, with a slight recovery in the shape of a two per cent increase from February to March.
While the drop in sales could be blamed to a certain degree on the credit crunch, experts still expected sales to increase. Another reason considered by NPD for the disappointing stats is that consumers have decided DVD to be 'good enough' and the premium price of Blu-ray players is not worth the outlay.
This theory is also backed up by the upsurge in sales of upconverting DVD players, rising five per cent so far this year compared to figures for 2007.
Unsurprisingly, sales of the now disbanded HD-DVD format players have plummeted, down 65 per cent from February to March, while standard DVD player sales have dropped 39 per cent over the same period.
news.cnet.co.uk
Share this article:
Del.icio.us this
