Analyst Drops Blu-ray Player Sales Prediction by 25 Percent

[admin]

In an email to BetaNews, Parks Associates has revised down their estimates (for Blu-ray hardware sales) by 25 percent, or 4.3 million worldwide and 2.2 million stateside, citing a softening of player sales that began in September. This is the month when player sales should have increased as holiday "deals" and revised pricing began to pop up at various retailers.

http://www.thehdroom.com/news/Analyst_Drops_Blu-ray_Player_Sales_Prediction_by_25_Percent/3642

[Wombler]

Interesting.

Either the credit crunch is biting or perhaps Blu-ray isn't just quite as essential as its promoters like to portray.


Wombler

[blutach]

Or both.

Regards

[ed klein]

Yes, but knowing the power of Sony and special interest groups and they have ALL the resources they need.

Blu-ray will stay a-float, the powers will do whatever is necessary to make it that way.

Including controlling forums and people.

[Wombler]

They can't make people buy the things unless they want to though.


Wombler

[admin]

Sony just announced that their estimated profits would drop 59% compared to last year, causing their stock to drop 14% on the Nikkei. It's not a good time to be supporting an expensive project like Blu-ray which in itself is considered a luxury item. But I suspect Sony will have to keep on subsidizing and promoting Blu-ray because other manufacturer/studios are pinning all their hopes on it to fight off the recession blues.

Toshiba's decision to withdraw from the HD war now seems like a very wise one (especially if the reports that they took money from Sony are true). They're trying to buy SanDisk, after previously suggesting that flash memory can be used to distribute HD movies (a 32 GB drive would be big enough, and it would be re-usable).

[doctorhardware]

Even large companies are withdrawing or greatly reducing there funding for example nascar sponsorships. The economy is taking a big bite out of everything including blu ray.