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Blu-ray player prices dropped 12% in Q3, still in just 1.7% of US homes

by Darren Murph posted Oct 15th 2008 at 1:05AM


Here are a few more numbers to chew on as you try to decipher what's really going on in the world of Blu. During Q3 2008, Blu-ray player prices on the whole slipped 12% to an average of $350. While that may sound pretty good to you, just 1.7% of American homes posses a standalone Blu-ray deck. Of course, that number leaves out the legions of PS3 owners who gleefully enjoy BD flicks on their Sony-branded console, but it still pales in comparison to the 26% of US homes that currently have HDTV from a cable or satellite provider. The figures, which were quoted in a recent Wall Street Journal article, are used to assert that BD still hasn't "arrived" here on US soil, and for most, HD programming or vanilla DVDs are just fine. Our take? Well, we can't argue the numbers, but we're giddy to see how they change after Black Friday 2008 (and the holiday season) takes its toll.

Analyst scratches head over potential AT&T / EchoStar deal

by Darren Murph posted Dec 6th 2007 at 12:52AM

No sooner than chatter began flying over a potential AT&T / EchoStar deal, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. is wondering who actually thought (or still thinks) that this is a match made in heaven. According to media analyst Craig Moffett, "the very notion of an AT&T / EchoStar combination is based on a flawed premise; i.e. that AT&T needs video in order to compete with cable." He went on to say that AT&T is losing phone lines to cable because cable simply "has a marginal cost advantage," and noted that pairing up the two "does nothing to address AT&T's underlying cost problem." Stepping back, we actually see quite a bit of logic in Mr. Moffett's reasoning, and when you mix in the fact that AT&T's U-Verse could pose "a strategic threat to EchoStar," one really wonders how effective a partnership would be.

More analyst conjecture: format war will remain stalemated

by Darren Murph posted Dec 5th 2007 at 7:17PM

If there's one thing you can count on in the format war, it's conflicting evidence -- oh, and the occasional knife fight, too. Among all the reports of Blu-ray / HD DVD claiming victory, there's also a decent amount of folks who believe this whole mess is still deadlocked, and the latest musings from sister companies Screen Media Digest and Adams Media Research certainly support the latter. Put simply, the two firms feel that the "main factor eating into high-definition adoption is standard-definition DVD," and while we've already heard that DVD player sales were slipping, we've no doubt owners will continue to snap up DVDs for quite some time. According to Helen Davis Jayalath, senior analyst at Screen Digest, "both formats will be established and coexist for the foreseeable future," and she even suggested that HD software would be split 60% / 40% globally, with BD taking the edge. Feel free to hit the read link if you're intrigued, but don't be shocked if you see something completely contradictory hit the presses just hours from now.

LCD sales holding strong, plasma sales sinking lower

by Darren Murph posted Jul 24th 2007 at 11:07PM


Even though Matsushita joined forces with Hitachi to take on the less-than-favorable plasma market, things (still) aren't looking good in terms of sales figures. According to recent reports, PDP makers on the whole "are likely to report weak results, having lost dominance of the market for large TVs to the more popular LCD." Additionally, Samsung already posted a "worse-than-expected quarterly net loss, hurt by tumbling prices of its television screens." On the flip side, LCD producers are more likely to be holding their heads high, as sales of these sets has continued to be strong regardless of how far the prices are falling. If you're scratching your head because you thought that people preferred plasmas over LCDs, we can only assume that regardless of predilection, money talks.

Apple rumors are fun when they're about HDTV

by Richard Lawler posted Feb 23rd 2006 at 3:33PM

Apple: February 28thNothing we love more than rumor mongering analyst predictions at HDBeat, the latest of which has revived the high definition or HDTV-based video iPod rumor. No news on possible Intel Viiv-based plasmas or MovieBeam integration, but we wouldn't rule out a surprise appearance by Bigfoot at this point.

The announcement, whatever it is, will be made at a just-announced press event February 28th, so check back here on Tuesday to see what is what. What do you think: is there anything video or high-def related coming out of Apple's closet next week?




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