Sony may ship as many as 600,000 Blu-ray players in the U.S. this year

[Tekman]

Sony May Increase U.S. Shipments of Blu-Ray by Sixfold in 2007
By Ian King and Hiroshi Suzuki

June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., the world's second- largest consumer electronics maker, said shipments of Blu-ray DVD players in the U.S. may jump sixfold this year as it expects movies exclusively available to the device will lure buyers.

Sony may ship as many as 600,000 Blu-ray players in the U.S. this year, from less than 100,000 units in 2006, said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of the U.S. home products division, at a meeting in San Francisco yesterday.

Sony, based in Tokyo, forecast last month that net income in the year ending March 31 will more than double, helped by its movie unit, increased sales of Bravia televisions and narrower losses at the PlayStation game unit. Sony's Blu-ray fights with Toshiba Corp.'s HD DVD in high-definition television.

``You'll see growth in multiples of five or six times'' for Blu-ray player shipments in the U.S. in 2007 from a year earlier, Waynick told reporters at a meeting. ``A lot of that will depend how competitive'' it becomes, he said.

The company manufactures its Blu-ray players at a factory in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo.

``The movies are very compelling,'' Waynick said, without disclosing any titles. Out of the top 20 blockbusters, ``there were 14 or 15 that were exclusive Blu-ray.''

Shares of Sony fell 0.8 percent to 6,590 yen as of the 11 a.m. break on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.4 percent.

[HDTV1080P]

The HD-DVD camp has only sold 150,000 Toshiba players so far.
Quote
“Consumers have purchased 150,000 dedicated HD DVD consumer electronics players, which are holding a 4-to-1 movie attach rate over competing formats, according to the group.”

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6450934.html

That would be great if Sony ships 600,000 players to the US this year plus millions of PS3’s.

The most important number is not how many HDTV capable HD-DVD or BLU-RAY devices have sold but which format has sold the most amount of movies so far. Currently BLU-RAY has sold more movies compared to the HD-DVD format.

[Ascended_Saiyan]

150,000 HD DVD set top boxes vs. 120,000 Blu-ray set top boxes. That's only a 30,000 difference. Then there's the PS3.

[Coltboy]

Consumers are the deciding factor as to who will win but it is the movie companies that need to produce 2 or 3 big titles to clinch it, the companies should look at the numbers then decide which format to produce it on, like i said before, making movies is a gamble, converting it to HD in many ways would be less expensive.

Movies like LOTR and the Star wars are long movies and in order to get the best picture and sound, put it on the stinking 50GB disk, maybe i just am to simple of a man to know the big picture, but if i had made those movies i would wantthe best picture and sound possible, and right now BD is the best format to do this.

There has to be a way for Blu-ray to sell there dedicated player for cheaper than $599 which i paid $1,000 for mine, but HD-DVD is giving theirs away at $249

[jermwhl]

Originally Posted by Ascended_Saiyan

150,000 HD DVD set top boxes vs. 120,000 Blu-ray set top boxes. That's only a 30,000 difference. Then there's the PS3.

The PS3's aren't included in the those numbers????

[Blu-Ray Buckeye]

Originally Posted by jermwhl

The PS3's aren't included in the those numbers????

No, but they are included by the HD-DVD camp when calculating teh "attach rate". Funny like game of statistics they play.

[aaronwt]

Originally Posted by Blu-Ray Buckeye

No, but they are included by the HD-DVD camp when calculating teh "attach rate". Funny like game of statistics they play.

Becasue there is no way to separate those out and get attach rates for only stand alone players. That data doesn't exist. They only have total title sales and the number of PS3/HD DVD add ons and the stand alones. They have no idea if the titles were purchased by a person with a stand alone player or a PS3/HD DVD addon.

[kaliraver]

I read the following article on Bloomberg.com in regards to Sony greatly increasing their sales forcast of Blu-Ray players for fiscal year 2007. Here is the article:

Sony Corp., the world's second- largest consumer electronics maker, said shipments of Blu-ray DVD players in the U.S. may jump sixfold this year as it expects movies exclusively available to the device will lure buyers.

Sony may ship as many as 600,000 Blu-ray players in the U.S. this year, from less than 100,000 units in 2006, said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of the U.S. home products division, at a meeting in San Francisco yesterday.

Sony, based in Tokyo, forecast last month that net income in the year ending March 31 will more than double, helped by its movie unit, increased sales of Bravia televisions and narrower losses at the PlayStation game unit. Sony's Blu-ray fights with Toshiba Corp.'s HD DVD in high-definition television.

``You'll see growth in multiples of five or six times'' for Blu-ray player shipments in the U.S. in 2007 from a year earlier, Waynick told reporters at a meeting. ``A lot of that will depend how competitive'' it becomes, he said.

The company manufactures its Blu-ray players at a factory in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo.

``The movies are very compelling,'' Waynick said, without disclosing any titles. Out of the top 20 blockbusters, ``there were 14 or 15 that were exclusive Blu-ray.''

I can't wait to see some of these exclusive movies on Blu-Ray like Pirates 3, Spider-Man 3, etc. This is great news for HD-DVD fans, hurray!!!

[movies3]

YES!! go Sony!!!

[kikkomaniac]

Originally Posted by jermwhl

The PS3's aren't included in the those numbers????

nope... as of May 1,5 million ps3 has been sold in the usa

worldwide its at 3,4 mill