CNET’s HDMI Deals on Friday reported on Nielsen’s latest VideoScan figures, showing that Blu-ray Disc’s market share in the video disc market has slumped in the past week.
According to Nielsen, Blu-ray’s market share dropped to just 8 percent of the overall market, giving DVDs a whopping 92 percent ownership.
Granted, those figures show only one week’s performance, and Blu-ray may have a huge week soon and capture more of the market, but let’s be honest with ourselves: do we really think that will happen?
According to a study released in August by ABI Research, more than half the people it surveyed had no plans to buy a standalone Blu-ray player in the near future, and 23 percent are considering it, but not until 2009.
When your format is limping along with just 8 percent of the market, the last thing you want to hear is that only 23 percent of the population actually wants a Blu-ray player.
But wait! There’s always the PlayStation 3, right? Surely, everyone who knows about Blu-ray is picking up a PlayStation 3 to watch their movies. After all, won’t that product be the savior for which Sony has been waiting?
Please. According to NPD’s latest numbers, Sony sold just 185,000 PlayStation 3 units, which represented a 17 percent drop, compared to July sales numbers. Worse, it barely beat out the PlayStation 2, DVD player and all.
The PlayStation 3 isn’t going to be Blu-ray’s savior, and neither is that sub-$200 price tag. At this point, I simply don’t see how Blu-ray has a chance.
Eight percent of the market is nothing. Sure, it’s a young product, and DVD started out slowly too, but do all the people who espouse the belief that Blu-ray will succeed somehow forget that the jump between VHS and DVD was substantial?
Find yourself a VCR, and pop a tape into it. After that, throw a DVD into your player, and watch it on your HDTV. When you’re done with that, do me a favor, and pop a Blu-ray movie into your PS3. Notice anything shocking when comparing VHS to DVD and anything, well, disappointing when comparing that DVD movie to Blu-ray?
That’s what I thought.