http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/ Engadget HD Comments for Blu-ray moved 63.2 million units in 2008 http://www.engadgethd.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgethd.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/Jan 8th 2009 4:24AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
When making your projections for the future of Blu-ray, did you also take into account that almost one third of the sales where made in the 4th quarter ? Or that that DVD sales where DOWN while BD sales went up 250%.

Obviously you slept through your math classes.

As far as I can see these figures seems to be quite positive for BD with a quite dramatic increase in sales the last months DESPITE the biggest economic downturn that most people have ever experienced.]]>Jan 8th 2009 5:53AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
Right now HDTV's under your definition is a niche market but do you honestly think it will stay that way?]]>Jan 8th 2009 7:58AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
The sales happening were because of deals and holidays, nothing strange there nor I commented on that.

at 4.5% it will take a LONG time to even come close to DVD. Wake up.

And the point is.. At 4.5% it's a niche market, that's all I said.]]>Jan 8th 2009 8:53AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
No.. HDTV is not a niche market because it's at 40% or more. 4.5% and 40% are completely different things.

Why do you people get like offended when it's obvious. I don't have a problem buying Blu-Rays because of it nor it bothers me, I just don't understand why people get so riled up. It is niche and it will be niche until it comes to 20-30% or more of DVD numbers.]]>Jan 8th 2009 8:56AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
You wouldn't for a second consider that it actually might be because BD is indeed, really picking up speed.

4.5% would be a niche product if the sales figures wheren't moving anywhere. But reality seems to be that they are indeed moving faster and faster while DVD sales are indeed moving in the other direction. So in this case 4.5% is a new product in the process of picking up speed, nothing else. Whether it truly succeds is another matter.

The fact that it is 4.5% NOW does not mean that it must take a LONG time before it becomes bigger. That was my point. It's how fast it grows and how fast DVD's shrink that determines that and, as I believe the article wanted to point out, BD seems to grow faster and faster.

And as JimC pointed out. The clock started ticking only a year ago when HD-DVD stopped muddling the picture for the potential buyers.]]>Jan 8th 2009 11:08AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/Jan 8th 2009 1:58PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
In my house I have 4 dvd players (5 if you count the portable 6 if laptop counts and lastly 7 if you count the xbox 360) and 1 BD player... just using the vanilla dvd players thats 4 dvd and 1 bd.. so in my house alone the dvd vs bd split is 80% dvd vs 20% bd.

Now lets add my mom who has 3 dvd players and no bd... and grandma has 3 dvd players and no bd.. so 3 house holds 1 with bd.. that's 66% of households dvd vs 33% bd.. but bd only accounts for 9% of the players sold.

Lastly both the wife and myself use the BD while mom and grandma use DVD.. 50/50 in useage and in potential move buyers or renters.]]>Jan 9th 2009 6:49AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/Jan 8th 2009 9:02AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
The problem with downloads and streams is there are TOO MANY of them. Each offers different movies, most are 720p for their high def, and it's similar to a format war where a consumer has to decide which one to go with. It's also true blu-ray has limited titles as well, but I believe that if they start to include digital copies it has a better chance. If I were a movie studio, I would be including a separate dvd inside each blu-ray, so that those who cannot afford a blu-ray player will be able to buy their new releases, play them now on their dvd players and take them anywhere (portables, ect), and when they are able, they will have started a blu-ray collection. Considering how much a dvd costs the studios to press, this is not entirely out of the question.

To sum it up, people are used to physical media, many like having their movies on their shelves. Hard drives and storage drives will always fail at some point-and then what? Streaming seems the best option, when they can get the bandwidth and short download times for 1080p.

Until they can make a download take only a few minutes, in 1080p, with lossless audio and all of the disc extras plus the bdlive features, which I think is quite a ways off, I think blu-ray has the big opportunity in 2009. I believe players will be down to $199, some even $149, and I also believe the studios will start reducing man.list prices on titles already out, which I think is the big deal now. The player prices are not out of reach, but replacing movies for many people is, example: the 1966 Batman movie with Adam West (just an example). Fox is listing this at $39.95. I also see hundreds of blu-rays out there that were boxoffice flops, or made very little at the boxoffice for $39.95 or $34.95 retail. These movies should be $29.95 Manufacturer list price at the very most. Case in point: Warner's taking 50 titles and reducing them to $19.95 was a great movie, I think more studios will follow, probably not with new releases but older titles.

I am an optomist when it comes to blu-ray because I think the format is awesome (yes, hd-dvd was great too) but I believe the physical disc is a no-brainer for all those millions of people with high def televisions. They simply will not keep buying their new releases in dvd format for their high def tv's forever.]]>Jan 8th 2009 10:15AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/You can ship as many movies on DVD and Blu-Ray as you want...
but if they don't sell it doesn't matter.

Just pointing this out to those who keep quoting these as sales figures.
Technically, I think both DVD and Blu-Ray sales are doing considerably better
than they should be considering the state that the economy is in.

I'd say that while Blu-Ray is still a niche market at the moment,
it won't be for much longer.]]>Jan 8th 2009 10:17AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/biztech/articles/07video.html]]>Jan 8th 2009 4:46PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/Jan 9th 2009 3:44PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/Jan 8th 2009 7:00PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
I recall posting last year's DVD's numbers (1.7 billion in the USA alone and almost 7 billion globally) recently.

So Blu-ray got 63.2 million v 1.4 billion this year = 4.5%.

That's still tiny, niche, minute....however you wish to describe it it is a hell of a long way aways off of any credible kind of 'tipping point' in the mass-market.

Too little far too late.

The coming economic slump just guarantees Blu-ray stays a minority niche.

As I have been saying for some months (and as Obama said only today) Govs around the world are ramping up public expenditure programs to offset the worst of the looming economic slump & projects in the national long-term interest
(of which internet infrastructure is near the very top of the list).

It's all taken too long for Blu-ray.

Digital distribution is coming and ironically, thanks to the recession, it's coming much faster than was previously imagined while the recession slows HD TV and Blu-ray adoption. ]]>Jan 8th 2009 9:03PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
"As I have been saying for some months (and as Obama said only today) Govs around the world are ramping up public expenditure programs to offset the worst of the looming economic slump & projects in the national long-term interest
(of which internet infrastructure is near the very top of the list)."

Just thought I'd point out that, according to Federico Pena (a spokesperson for the Obama campaign), the focus of this effort is to bring broadband access to rural and inner-city areas that don't have it. I doubt these same areas are the ones clamoring to buy online HD media...

]]>Jan 9th 2009 8:51AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
You're surely not dismissing the bulk of the global activity I've mentioned now beginning just to make a point about a small part of what will be happening in some parts of America are you?

Even in relation to the point you make, they may well be talking about expanding and improving the network to parts of the USA where it is currently very thin & poor but that undoubtedly has to be coming necessarily coupled with an upgrading of the main national network to which those areas connect or will connect.

You can't have one without the other - unless you're now trying to say that by further loading the existing network(s) the USA is going to end up in a worse situation than they now have?

Come on, be serious.]]>Jan 9th 2009 10:24AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
"You're surely not dismissing the bulk of the global activity I've mentioned now beginning just to make a point about a small part of what will be happening in some parts of America are you?"

Don't try and make it sound like I was the one being myopic, you're the one that brought up Obama, not me. I was simply clearing up that his plan only includes expanding the current infrastructure, not updating the existing. Sure, eventually all infrastructure will have to be updated to account for the new traffic. All I was saying is that this current plan doesn't mention that. As it stands now, they will have to get approval and build the infrastructure (which will take years), then they'll have to get another plan passed and money accrued to upgrade the current infrastructure (which will take many more years). Never underestimate the governments ability to be short-sighted...

"Come on, be serious."

When did I give any indication that I wasn't being serious? You just seem to assume a lot and quote it like you know it as fact...that's all.]]>Jan 9th 2009 10:50AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08/blu-ray-moved-63-2-million-units-in-2008/
There's a world of difference between reasonable deduction and logical conclusion and unfounded assumption.

The next US administration is not going to spend billions of $ on improving the US internet infrastructure just to see it more loaded & slower than it currently is.

I mentioned Obama because it was topical and purely because by happenstance he spoke about this yesterday.

It may indeed take a couple or even a few years to lay more fibre cables.
But so what?
My original point is still valid, there is indeed irony in the situation whereby the coming recession slows and stalls HD TV adoption and Blu-ray adoption and yet paradoxically speeds up the advent of digital distribution.

You can quibble over a couple of years now making a big deal of difference if you like but I'd suggest that the recession and the general wasting of time Blu-ray has indulged in has made that wholly academic when it comes to the mass-market.]]>Jan 9th 2009 4:07PM