Has Blu Ray’s Time Finally Arrived?
Despite the economic resession, and according to mulitple sources (including Blu-ray.com, Home Media Magazine, Video Business), Blu-Ray disc sales were up 67% in 2009. In addition, the number of US households with a Blu-Ray player increased 76% to some 17 million. Those figures represent some $1.5 billion (that’s billion with a b) in revenue for the year 2009.
Another kicker? Blu-Ray player sales were up 44% during the five week holiday shopping season – while consumer spending was actually down 1% during this same five week period. So, while people weren’t buying much, they were still buying Blu-Ray Players.
And what about the Blu-Ray player containing Sony PlayStation 3? Sales were up 76% in 2009 over the same 5 week holiday period of 2008!
That’s got to make Sony smile.
Blu-Ray disc rentals were also up, due mainly to RebBox rentals and online mega rental site NetFlix.
To futher underline Blu-Ray’s success in 2009, sales of “traditional” DVD’s were down 17% in the last quarter of 2009 according to the Digital Entertainment Group.
So, what’s everyone buying? Here are the top three Blu-Ray players being sold:
While many of us will continue to enjoy our DVD collection with a quality upconvert DVD player and HDTV, 2010 may well be the year to seriously consider making the leap to Blu-Ray.