75% of Survey Respondents Say They'll Go Blu by 2009

[Blu Titan]

Great news for some (us) not so good for others (haters ). A great article from Home Media Magazine:


75% of Survey Respondents Say They'll Go Blu by 2009
Author: CHRIS TRIBBEY
ctribbey@questex.com
Posted: August 4, 2008


A consumer survey from ABI Research on consumer adoption of Blu-ray Disc players found an overwhelming majority plan on buying a Blu-ray player this year or next.

Half of the 1,000 respondents said they plan on buying a Blu-ray player this year, and another quarter said they would hold off until 2009.

Half of the respondents to the survey also said they consider the quality of Blu-ray players to be much better than DVD, while 40% said it is “somewhat better.”

The survey also found that Sony’s Blu-ray-enabled PlayStation 3 game console is rapidly becoming a favorite for hardcore gamers, “and so the installed base of sockets for Blu-ray discs continues to climb.”

“While you might think gamers purchase fewer movie discs than others, we didn’t see any significant evidence of that in our results,” said ABI principal analyst Steve Wilson. “PS3 console shipments will go a long way to help bring down manufacturing costs and drive down Blu-ray player prices.”

Standalone Blu-ray player prices were found to be the chief impediment to even faster consumer adoption, according to the ABI study, along with the need to purchase a high-definition TV set.

“We expect that player prices will remain above $300 for tier-one models for the remainder of this year,” Wilson said. “Look for disc bundling to become the buyers’ incentive.”

ABI Research is a New York-based market research firm focused on the impact of emerging technologies on global consumer and business markets.