Blu-ray is trashing HD-DVD in Japan

[BBlue]

It looks to me that Blu-ray has already won in Japan. Now that PS3 sales have taken off in that country, there is no hope Toshitba can mount a come back!

Which territory is next to fall? Australia or Europe?

Blu-ray wins 97 per cent of HD recorder sales

Japanese figures reveal how far behind HD DVD is falling
J. Mark Lytle
23 Nov 2007 05:15 GMT

It's hard to know what to make of the latest statistics on the battle for supremacy between Blu-ray and HD DVD because of the fact that they're from Japan, home of so many of Blu-ray's backers. Nevertheless, the degree to which HD DVD has fallen behind in Japan in sales of the crucial high-end HD TV recorders is stark.

According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, the figures from the week ending 12 November for sales of next-generation machines capable of recording show just 2.8 per cent of them were HD DVD units. The remaining 97.2 per cent were, of course, Blu-ray devices.
Standard DVD still selling

Naturally, the availability of Blu-ray machines plays its part - there are more models available in Japan - but the HD DVD Promotion Group will obviously be worried.

Both formats still have some work to do in the home-recording market as a whole. Considering the older DVD format as well, the two newcomers account for just 19.8 percent of total recorder sales, with plain-vanilla DVD accounting for over 80 per cent.

Although fewer than a quarter of purchases are of next-gen recorders, the corresponding figure was a mere 5 per cent as recently as mid-October, so it can't be long before DVD has to take a back seat, but will HD DVD be joining it?

http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertain...om=true&page=1

[BBlue]

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertain...leid=955163990

[richard lichtenfelt]

I think this is indicative of the Japanese familiarity with high quality electronics.

[Blu-Generation]

Like that dude said in Transformers. The Japanese knows the way of the samurai.

In this case, they know their way of the blu-ray.

If only Toshiba would bow down, and throw in the towel.

I know how it feels to lose, it suck, but a real man should know where they stand.

I myself own a website, my mission was to compete with another site, whoever gets the most hit traffic and members win. In my case, it was a thousand to 4.
As pathetic as that was, I toss in the towel and take it like a man.

Why can't Toshiba do the same already, and end this current war.

[ESUNintel]

What ever victory Blu has in Japan, it will have world wide. There are many Japanese electrons manufacturers, and if their consumers want Blu, than they will have to provide them with it; which means more Blu players, drives, laptops etc... being made by these companies, who also happen to be known world wide.

[w_tanoto]

Originally Posted by ESUNintel

What ever victory Blu has in Japan, it will have world wide. There are many Japanese electrons manufacturers, and if their consumers want Blu, than they will have to provide them with it; which means more Blu players, drives, laptops etc... being made by these companies, who also happen to be known world wide.

not really. MiniDisc is one of them. It is popular in Japan, but not in other part. BD is different. BD is popular everywhere. USA is the last territory that HD DVD still have chance winning

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by w_tanoto

not really. MiniDisc is one of them. It is popular in Japan, but not in other part. BD is different. BD is popular everywhere. USA is the last territory that HD DVD still have chance winning

and even though this is a big country here in the u.s. but compared to all of the other countries the popularity of hd-dvd in america is more like a fraction to what the other people in the u.s. and the whole world think of blu-ray

[The Guardian]

That's huge though, Blu having almost 20% of the OVERALL market for them...

[BBlue]

Originally Posted by The Guardian

That's huge though, Blu having almost 20% of the OVERALL market for them...

Right on. That's the most important piece of information from the article. In a span of less than 1 month, Blu-ray has gone from a 5% market share to almost 20%. At this rate, Blu-ray should be THE video format in Japan by year end.

This is HUGE...

[Malosch78]

Good news.
I'll do my part, that Europe is the next place, where the HD-DVD will get a total defeat

[BBlue]

More details in this article:

Blu-ray dominates Japanese HD recorder sales

By Tony Smith [More by this author]
23rd November 2007 11:20 GMT

High definition media like HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc has increase to account for just under 20 per cent of Japanese consumers' retail recorder purchases, numbers from market watcher GfK show.

And of the two HD formats, Blu-ray has been outselling HD DVD by a hefty margin.

For the week ending 12 November 2007, DVD's share of the Japanese retail disc recorder sales was 80.2 per cent, down from 83.4 per cent the previous week, GfK's figures - supplied, we should say, by the Japanese wing of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) - show. For the previous three weeks, moving backwards, DVD's share was 84.8 per cent, 91.9 per cent and 94.7 per cent, respectively.

A clear shift to HD media, then - over the last five weeks at least.

HD DVD's share of the HD recorder market hasn't exceeded five per cent during the five-week period GfK's figures cover. It started out at 4.2 per cent, had fallen to 1.3 per cent by week three then risen to 2.8 per cent in the week to 12 November.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11...an_hd_r_sales/

[BBlue]

Originally Posted by BBlue

More details in this article:

Blu-ray dominates Japanese HD recorder sales

By Tony Smith [More by this author]
23rd November 2007 11:20 GMT

High definition media like HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc has increase to account for just under 20 per cent of Japanese consumers' retail recorder purchases, numbers from market watcher GfK show.

And of the two HD formats, Blu-ray has been outselling HD DVD by a hefty margin.

For the week ending 12 November 2007, DVD's share of the Japanese retail disc recorder sales was 80.2 per cent, down from 83.4 per cent the previous week, GfK's figures - supplied, we should say, by the Japanese wing of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) - show. For the previous three weeks, moving backwards, DVD's share was 84.8 per cent, 91.9 per cent and 94.7 per cent, respectively.

A clear shift to HD media, then - over the last five weeks at least.

HD DVD's share of the HD recorder market hasn't exceeded five per cent during the five-week period GfK's figures cover. It started out at 4.2 per cent, had fallen to 1.3 per cent by week three then risen to 2.8 per cent in the week to 12 November.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11...an_hd_r_sales/

Look at the chart:



During that period, the rise in demand for HD recorders has been dominated by Blu-ray, but that's no great surprise. Blu-ray recording technology has been around a lot longer than its HD DVD equivalent and has become more mature. Equally, Japan is home to far more Blu-ray backing manufacturers than it is to vendors who favour HD DVD.

Historically, HD DVD recorder sales have grown. GfK's figures charting monthly unit sales from October 2006 through to 18 November 2007 show a slow but steady rise from January 2007 onwards. Before then, sales were stuck at zero - Japanese buyers couldn't choose HD DVD recorders if they wanted them.

By contrast, the first consumer-oriented start selling in appreciable numbers in November 2006 - though pro-oriented BD recorders have been around for quite some time before then - and grow in a steady, straight line until October 2007 when sales suddenly shoot up. The increase between November 2007 and October 2007 is even steeper.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11...an_hd_r_sales/

[LordGamer]

For other global markets, it's about quality more than price. The US has turn into your typical "Walmart" consumer and just shovels the cheapest crap in their cart. It is honestly sad, the economic state this country is in, but thinks to some type of people in our society, it won't change...at least not anytime soon.

The ONLY thing that has kept HD DVD afloat is cutting their prices till it's almost giving them away. Don't get me wrong, I like a bargain. However, quality and superior technology should be considered first, not just saving a few bucks. Especially, considering this is early adopter technology and generally expensive products (i.e. home theater setups).

Studios and retailers pay close attention to things of real importance (like worldwide sales) and not fanboy garbage spewed on forums.

[Neo65]

This is what happens when you can't get the recordable media working in time. Japan is a market where recordable optical disks for TV does very well.

Even for DVD recorders, Japan is the one market that those things took off.

The war in japan has been essentially over for a while, primarily because of the 25Gb and 50GB BD-R/RE blanks are available everywhere while the toshiba units have some difficulty in (1) getting their 30GB disks working (noone wants the 15GB) (2) getting their blanks working reliably.

Once Toshiba started to ship HDD only models, you knew they were essentially gone from that market, the japanese want the recordable blanks and don't like the HDDs.

The BD recorder market is dominated by Panasonic, Sony and Sharp from my understanding of what's being shown around right now.


Edit : If you think about it, a BD recorder that works with US openCable is a pretty good thing to have, but they haven't started doing those. Even though these things are expensive, I think there will be a market for HD PVR replacements if marketed properly. The HD PVR boxes in our homes are rented at $25/month, there must be a rental model from the cable companies that can support such devices. I have a few movies and sports games that I would have liked to have recorded straight to a BD-RE to keep.
---

Let's not forget that by their actions so far, HD DVD PRG has clearly made US their last stand, they will throw everything they have to fight it out in the US, and they do have lots of resources left. They are not going to roll over easy, and it will take a while.

[Porfie]

Blu-ray wins 97 per cent of HD recorder sales in Japan

http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertain...leid=955163990

[dialog_gvf]

Oh that is so 11 days ago.

Rio's post of the latest data

[The Guardian]

It seems the latest upsurge coincides roughly with the introduction of the new Sony and Panasonic records, am I right?

The best part of this news is over time it will help drive down costs on blank media.

[darinp2]

I hope this news gets to key people at Time Warner, just in case Warner tells them that they and New Line plan to drop Blu-ray, so Time Warner can ask them why they they think it would be a smart business decision to pretty much give up the Japanese market. Of course, I hope it gets to key people at Warner and New Line also, just in case they are thinking of making a decision that would pretty much cost them the portion of the high definition on disc market they can have in Japan by releasing on Blu-ray.

Given that the latest Harry Potter has just come out in Japan, maybe the sales for it will have some impact on Warner's thinking. Currently it is #1054 on HD DVD and #45 on Blu-ray on Amazon's Japanese site.

--Darin

[Neo65]

The flip side of the japanese market is that while they prefer recordable formats, note that their movies are generally more expensive than US, meaning their volumes are much smaller.

But it would be strange if the world went one way and the US still fights this one out for a long time.

The one thing that might stop WB from going HD DVD is that if they switch to HDDVD, they alone cannot end this war and it becomes a guaranteed stalemate, and in fact, the red team would have a slight advantage, but it would be essentially a tie.

Otoh, if WB were to switch to BD only, it would stop the war virtually over night.

WB's short term interest is best served by staying neutral and forcing the CEM's to lower their BD player prices. The only thing that can force WB to abandon this stance is if they believe that the format war itself is hampering adoption. WB likely believes more in packaged media than downloads since they do have patents on both HD & BD, something very different from the HD studio supporters (and MSFT) at this point. If they believe that there is substantial growth in both, they may choose to continue this for another year.

This war now is basically Toshiba vs the entire japanese CEMs, and Toshiba's scorched earth $98 pricing is really the point of no return as there is no conceivable way any japanese or even korean CEM will follow that death spiral at this point --- they all need a way to recoup their initial R&D, and they can't do that with that kind of pricing. Pricing decline is a normal process that takes place over time, there is no normal path from prototype straight to commodity for any reasonable CEM.

But while the BD CEMs cannot play the $98 game, there is room for Chinese players to enter the market at some point with $198 pricing. It might take 2008 xmas for name brand BD players to reach the < $200 in MSRP.

How's that for my armchair C level executive CEM analysis?

[cleric]

I thought it was general knowledge that the Japanese worship at the temple of Sony. Problem is Hollywood still makes a large portion of the movies.