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Even With $199 Players, Blu-ray Sales Are Struggling

by Kaiser Hwang on December 3, 2008 at 07:25 AM

Back when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, Blu-ray and HD-DVD coexisted in a competitive market that frustrated consumers with a lack of high-def disc formats. The result was no one really upgrading to either format due to fears of one or the other going obsolete. Then HD-DVD officially gave up, and Blu-ray was declared the winner. Happily ever after, right? Not quite.

According to a study by ABI Research, only 8% of consumers were considering upgrading to Blu-ray players this holiday season due to the cost involved. Not just the cost of the players (which have dropped dramatically over months, all the way down to $199), but the cost of an HDTV, a Blu-ray player, and the more expensive movies combined. Especially when you can now download HD content over the Internet and watch it on your TV with your PlayStation 3, XBox 360, Netflix box, or Vudu player. Given that many people don't care that much for high-def content (yet), or simply don't see much difference between SD and HD content, paying twice as much for a television, player, and movie seems like a waste.

So is Blu-ray out for the count? Maybe not. Let's not forget we're in a struggling economy that will one day get better. Additionally, PlayStation 3 sales have been skyrocketing, automatically giving millions of people a Blu-ray player in their house. Add onto that some DVD-like prices for Blu-ray movies on Amazon, and there's hope for the format yet. Regardless, we still buy physical media every now and then, mostly because digital options (like downloads) have yet to include all the special features included on discs. [From: Boing Boing]

Tags: blu-ray, business, hggnews, holiday, shopping

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