ABI Research points out the obvious: Blu-ray prices prices heading downward

by Darren Murph posted Nov 7th 2008 at 11:32AM

Man, what a difference 1.75 months makes. In mid-September, the BDA actually admitted that Blu-ray player prices weren't going to be sinking anytime soon; fast forward to now, and we've already got a smattering of sub-$200 decks to choose from. That being the case, ABI Research has just pushed out a new release that points out the obvious, noting that "competitive pressure from movie download services, and media speculation about the future success of the Blu-ray format itself has resulted in falling Blu-ray player prices across a range of current and older models." Unfortunately, there aren't any hints in there of just how low prices will go on Black Friday and during the run-up to the end of December, but trust us, we looked.

Filed under: Industry, Blu-ray

Tags: ABI research, AbiResearch, bd, blu-ray, blu-ray adoption, Blu-ray Player, Blu-rayAdoption, Blu-rayPlayer, business, data, industry, price, prices, pricing, research, survey

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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Achilles @ Nov 7th 2008 12:09PM

The older models are where the prices are going down. Don't need yesterdays bug-filled, who knows what version of Blu at a cheaper price. Profile 1.0 is not a deal at any price.

I guess I'll continue to wait for the better models to become affordable but now that I've waited this long, I'm not really looking forward to replacing my DVD's with Blu. Maybe one day but by that time, something else might have come along and stole Blu's thunder?

I guess prices falling is better than not falling at all.

Highly Ranked

Bozster @ Nov 7th 2008 12:19PM

Right.. prices falling is not bad, but it's obvious that the price drop is not based on demand or competition but as a last resort to try to pull it out of the slump. When people can't afford for their basic living expenses I highly doubt that sub $200 Magnavox player or whatever will be a priority for most consumers.

Neutral

shawnmos @ Nov 7th 2008 12:48PM

The Samsung BD-P1500 has been hovering around $200 for a while now and is Profile 2.0.

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Bozster @ Nov 7th 2008 12:16PM

Well it is a positive thing that prices are going down but unfortunately they are always one step behind.

As you all probably know the economic hardship is yet to hit us hard. They are now saying 2-3 months and the collapse will be felt among population. The big three car manufacturers have now came out and said they only have operating capital until the end of the year and will have to file bankruptcies.

In the situation we are in.. sub $200 players will be just as high and unapproachable as if they were $500. Let's not even go into the disc pricing.

Obviously the reason why BD CE companies have to take a loss on players is because they are at risk of losing everything as nobody can afford them at $250+.

I mean, this is good for those who can afford it, but based on the despair that I see from regular people, I'm doubtful that this will help Blu-ray.. they seem to succumb to pricing when it's already late. If they did that 2-3 months ago there would be a positive move, but as always they are not really consumer oriented until it hurts them.

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Nov 7th 2008 12:29PM

We have two examples of sub-$200 players, one a mistake (the Samsung offer was removed from the website within an hour of EHD going public), the other a discontinued obsolete model on close-out.

I really don't think either disproves the BDA's point. We also have Sherwood saying they're physically incapable of producing a player competitive with the subsidized units from the big manufacturers.

Now, don't get me wrong, BD players are obviously going to creep down in price, but the floor for a new, non-heavily-discounted, player is about $250 at the moment, with $400+ being more normal. And I've said before, the equivalent prices are around 10% of that for DVD players (eg you can get a DVD player for $25, $40+ buys you a nice one, and $100+ buys you a /really/ nice one or an overpriced premium model.) We have a long way to go before BD is competitive with DVD.

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Grubert @ Nov 7th 2008 1:23PM

"We have two examples of sub-$200 players, one a mistake (the Samsung offer was removed from the website within an hour of EHD going public), the other a discontinued obsolete model on close-out."

That is not true. If you buy a Sony BDP-S350 (which goes now for $224) with four Warner titles, you get a $100 discount.

So for example you could get:

Sony BDP-S350 224.00
I Am Legend 17.95
300 17.95
Batman Begins 17.95
Goodfellas 16.95
Subtotal 294.80

Discount -100.00
Total 194.80

Yep- a Sony BD-Live player with PiP and high-resolution audio bitstreaming, for under $200 with four free movies.

Neutral

Bozster @ Nov 7th 2008 1:37PM

@Grubert

That may be so at online store or if you are lucky to find a deal.. MSRP at stores I saw makes BDP-350 at $299.

Regardless of the deal, people still have a choice to make, if they want to buy movies or player they will be hard pressed to pay $230-$250 for a hi-def player when they can buy upscaling DVD player at $50-$80 in these insane economic times and that's under the condition they buy anything now and then we have of course a question of expensive movies. The handful movies you can buy under $20 is not really a great collection.

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Nov 7th 2008 2:36PM

Sorry Grubert, but before calling me a liar, perhaps you'd like to actually check both the links Darren Murph gave. I correctly summarized them, NEITHER had anything to do with the offer you just summarized, which involves an entirely different player altogether.

It's certainly nice you can just about find a half decent offer for under $200, but it's not typical of what's available. As Bozster points out, enter any B&M store, and you'll be lucky to find a BDP-350 for much under $300.

Neutral

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