DVD player sales sinking, no one surprised
by Darren Murph 
posted Nov 13th 2007 at 1:21AM
Earlier this year, we saw reports that hinted at "flat" DVD sales for the remainder of 2007, so it follows logic to hear that standalone DVD players are seeing a similar fate. Reportedly, around 80-percent of US consumers have a DVD player somewhere in their domicile, which reinforces the fact that the market is pretty well saturated. Furthermore, sales of the aforementioned units have "declined 15-percent for the 12 months ending September 2007," and that's coming off of a 24-percent slide the year before. As for DVD recorders, things aren't look too much brighter; sales of these gizmos were also down 15-percent during the year ending September 2007, which is quite a change from the 50-percent uptick it saw during the same window last year. Still, none of this should come as a surprise to anyone remotely paying attention, as the age of HD films has officially arrived -- even though we've yet to choose a single format to lead us down glory road. Nevertheless, we still foresee quite a few people picking up incredibly inexpensive DVD players as gifts this holiday season, but we highly doubt you'll need to throw down on anyone in aisle five this year to get your hands on one.[Image courtesy of NY Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
locke6854 @ Nov 13th 2007 4:55AM
when i said earlier that h4ldol was getting smarter/nicer.... i take that back
I'd love him to be a guest on the new podcast. I wanna know what his job and income is... i guess you have to be a douche to make it to top management, but i'm thinking he's more frustrated high school kid
HD4ME @ Nov 13th 2007 5:30AM
@h4
They were all flocking to buy HD DVD players for $98.
D@n @ Nov 13th 2007 5:51AM
Are all those comments really necessary?
This site is slowly heading towards AVS Forum territory! *sigh*
Andy Sullivan @ Nov 13th 2007 10:11AM
With the huge influx of HD programing now present on TV it's begs a question. Why do we have SD DVD's and players at all anymore? You can watch and record 25 or more HD movies a day on HBO, Showtime and Cinemax. Yet it costs $30 to buy a single HD movie. If TV can supply HD broadcasting for free (OTA) then why such a premium for HD DVD's? Why such a premium for HD players? Going from SD to HD DVD's should have been a natural progression, not a great next coming.
Xyzzy @ Nov 13th 2007 10:00AM
Looks like I missed all the fun... :(
JeffDM @ Nov 13th 2007 10:37AM
I know some are going the way of HD, others going away of downloads, I think those two factors pale in the face of market saturation. Now it's just a matter of replacing players that die, which does seem to happen quickly for a lot of the dirt cheap players, but once you find a player that passes infant mortality, another one wouldn't be needed for a while.
EEL @ Nov 13th 2007 8:26PM
It was bound to happen, but I figured it wouldn't rear its head until this time next year with the "format war" going on.
Steven @ Nov 19th 2007 1:17PM
I hope they bring back the $98 HD DVD player. My dad, my brothers and my in-laws all want to pick one up for this price.