"Also today, the L.A. Times has posted a couple stories (click here and
here) on how Blu-ray sales haven't gone up as a result of the format war
ending. The conclusion is that consumers just aren't interested. So
naturally, we've had lots of readers e-mail us with concern about the future
of Blu-ray. Okay... first of all, anyone who was REALLY motivated to buy a
Blu-ray player the moment the format war ended already did so in January,
when Warner announced that they were abandoning HD-DVD. Second, people don't
tend to buy expensive electronics in the 1st and 2nd quarters. They buy them
in the second half of the year, because that's when all the best deals and
sales are to be found. Third, the economy has slowed a bit and gas prices
have spiked this spring, so people have tightened their budgets a bit.
Fourth, the Blu-ray studios and manufacturers have slowed their marketing
efforts since Toshiba threw in the towel, as they gear up for a major
holiday push later this year - the format's first without competition from
HD-DVD. Finally, there are still a lot of home theater-philes who aren't
interested in going with a PlayStation 3 for Blu-ray, but who want to wait
for good, affordable profile 2.0/BD-Live compatible players. So it's a wee
bit premature to start making drastic assumptions here.
Here's what we think you're going to see as we move into the latter half of
2008 and beyond. The BDA will begin to dramatically ramp up its marketing
and promotion efforts for Blu-ray in the 3rd quarter. Retailers and
manufacturers will begin offering TONS of sales and deals, including combo
deals where you'll get a Blu-ray player free or cheap with the purchase of a
new HDTV display (which, by the way, lots of people are going to be looking
at this fall in anticipation of the DTV switch next February). All of the
major summer blockbuster films will be coming out on Blu-ray later this
year, including The Dark Knight, Speed Racer, Ironman, Wall-E - maybe even
Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Indy 4. LOTS of major catalog titles will be
released later this year as well, including The Matrix Trilogy, The X-Men
Trilogy and more that haven't been announced yet. On top of all that,
Blu-ray player prices will again be lower, with some expected to drop into
the neighborhood of $250 (a few may even get as low as $225). Moving into
next year, EVERY studio I've spoken with says 2009 is when the floodgates
will really start to open in terms of A-list catalog titles being released
on the format. It's also expected that players will drop below $200 next
year. So anyone who thinks they can write off the Blu-ray format now would
be wise to sit tight and wait a year to see what happens between now and
then. It seems to us that there's a serious lack of perspective apparent in
a lot of these predictions.
To offer a little of that perspective ('cause that's what we DO here at The
Bits), we refer you to our own CEA DVD Player Sales History chart. Anyone
remember the DVD vs. DIVX format war? Well, DIVX threw in the towel in June
of 1999. Take a look at the chart. Anyone see a DVD sales spike in the next
few months after that? Nope. It wasn't until the holidays that year that DVD
sales started to increase modestly, and they really spiked the following
year, in 2000. What happened in 2000? LOTS of major titles started coming
out on the format, and that's also when DVD player prices started dropping
below $200. Just a few things to keep in mind."
"Robo-man" <duffy12@cox.net> wrote in news:eA0Tj.48$tM1.2@newsfe20.lga:
> From the Digital Bits:
>
> "Also today, the L.A. Times has posted a couple stories (click here
> and here) on how Blu-ray sales haven't gone up as a result of the
> format war ending. The conclusion is that consumers just aren't
> interested. So naturally, we've had lots of readers e-mail us with
> concern about the future of Blu-ray. Okay... first of all, anyone who
> was REALLY motivated to buy a Blu-ray player the moment the format war
> ended already did so in January, when Warner announced that they were
> abandoning HD-DVD. Second, people don't tend to buy expensive
> electronics in the 1st and 2nd quarters. They buy them in the second
> half of the year, because that's when all the best deals and sales are
> to be found. Third, the economy has slowed a bit and gas prices have
> spiked this spring, so people have tightened their budgets a bit.
> Fourth, the Blu-ray studios and manufacturers have slowed their
> marketing efforts since Toshiba threw in the towel, as they gear up
> for a major holiday push later this year - the format's first without
> competition from HD-DVD. Finally, there are still a lot of home
> theater-philes who aren't interested in going with a PlayStation 3 for
> Blu-ray, but who want to wait for good, affordable profile 2.0/BD-Live
> compatible players. So it's a wee bit premature to start making
> drastic assumptions here.
>
> Here's what we think you're going to see as we move into the latter
> half of 2008 and beyond. The BDA will begin to dramatically ramp up
> its marketing and promotion efforts for Blu-ray in the 3rd quarter.
> Retailers and manufacturers will begin offering TONS of sales and
> deals, including combo deals where you'll get a Blu-ray player free or
> cheap with the purchase of a new HDTV display (which, by the way, lots
> of people are going to be looking at this fall in anticipation of the
> DTV switch next February). All of the major summer blockbuster films
> will be coming out on Blu-ray later this year, including The Dark
> Knight, Speed Racer, Ironman, Wall-E - maybe even Star Wars: The Clone
> Wars and Indy 4. LOTS of major catalog titles will be released later
> this year as well, including The Matrix Trilogy, The X-Men Trilogy and
> more that haven't been announced yet. On top of all that, Blu-ray
> player prices will again be lower, with some expected to drop into the
> neighborhood of $250 (a few may even get as low as $225). Moving into
> next year, EVERY studio I've spoken with says 2009 is when the
> floodgates will really start to open in terms of A-list catalog titles
> being released on the format. It's also expected that players will
> drop below $200 next year. So anyone who thinks they can write off the
> Blu-ray format now would be wise to sit tight and wait a year to see
> what happens between now and then. It seems to us that there's a
> serious lack of perspective apparent in a lot of these predictions.
>
> To offer a little of that perspective ('cause that's what we DO here
> at The Bits), we refer you to our own CEA DVD Player Sales History
> chart. Anyone remember the DVD vs. DIVX format war? Well, DIVX threw
> in the towel in June of 1999. Take a look at the chart. Anyone see a
> DVD sales spike in the next few months after that? Nope. It wasn't
> until the holidays that year that DVD sales started to increase
> modestly, and they really spiked the following year, in 2000. What
> happened in 2000? LOTS of major titles started coming out on the
> format, and that's also when DVD player prices started dropping below
> $200. Just a few things to keep in mind."
>
>
>
> Bill Hunt, Editor
> The Digital Bits
>
>
>
> http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents
>
Beleive nothing from la la land
Robo-man wrote:
> From the Digital Bits:
> HD-DVD. Finally, there are still a lot of home theater-philes who aren't
> interested in going with a PlayStation 3 for Blu-ray, but who want to wait
> for good, affordable profile 2.0/BD-Live compatible players. So it's a wee
> bit premature to start making drastic assumptions here.
I can see people not wanting to use a PS3 for their Blu-ray player,
because it doesn't look like a home theatre component, but most people
really don't care one bit about 2.0 etc., they just want to watch the movie.
The whatever-philes are the ones who are buying now, because they don't
need to listen to a sales rep telling them about upcoming features they
know they will never use.
In article <fvin1b$unt$1@lust.ihug.co.nz>, RL <rl@null.void.test> wrote:
>Robo-man wrote:
>> From the Digital Bits:
>> HD-DVD. Finally, there are still a lot of home theater-philes who aren't
>> interested in going with a PlayStation 3 for Blu-ray, but who want to wait
>> for good, affordable profile 2.0/BD-Live compatible players. So it's a wee
>> bit premature to start making drastic assumptions here.
>
>I can see people not wanting to use a PS3 for their Blu-ray player,
>because it doesn't look like a home theatre component, but most people
>really don't care one bit about 2.0 etc., they just want to watch the movie.
It looks really cool on top of all of my other black components. Just because
it doesnt look square doesnt make it look bad as a component.
>
>The whatever-philes are the ones who are buying now, because they don't
>need to listen to a sales rep telling them about upcoming features they
>know they will never use.
>
>RL
>In article <fvin1b$unt$1@lust.ihug.co.nz>, RL <rl@null.void.test> wrote:
>>Robo-man wrote:
>>> From the Digital Bits:
>>> HD-DVD. Finally, there are still a lot of home theater-philes who aren't
>>> interested in going with a PlayStation 3 for Blu-ray, but who want to wait
>>> for good, affordable profile 2.0/BD-Live compatible players. So it's a wee
>>> bit premature to start making drastic assumptions here.
>>
>>I can see people not wanting to use a PS3 for their Blu-ray player,
>>because it doesn't look like a home theatre component, but most people
>>really don't care one bit about 2.0 etc., they just want to watch the movie.
>
>It looks really cool on top of all of my other black components. Just because
>it doesnt look square doesnt make it look bad as a component.
>
>
Now, that is a "format perspective" if I ever heard one!
Blu-ray *Format Perspective* 
Linear Mode
