Blu-ray sales stumble, fall

Posted on 25. Sep, 2008 by Rob in Hi-Fi and AV, Technology

Who needs high def discs now?

Blu-ray disc artwork

Whether you agree with my 5 reasons why Blu-ray will die article or not, the latest news from Nielsen VideoScan in the USA won’t make for happy reading – especially for the PS3 fanboys out there.

Blu-ray sales for the week ending 14 September fell 13.39 per cent, according to Nielsen VideoScan. That gives Blu-ray just 8 per cent market share in the US, compared to 92 per cent for DVD. DVD’s market share even went up slightly.

It’s obviously not fair to make sweeping generalisations based on sales for one week in September, but Blu-ray should be doing much, much better than this by now. Sony predicted that Blu-ray’s market share would be 50 per cent in the USA by the end of 2008. It’s not even remotely close.

Ars Technica says a combination of high Blu-ray player and disc prices, along with the credit crunch, have helped stymie Blu-ray’s growth. But HD downloads are also a factor, as I pointed out in my original piece for TechRadar.

Related posts:

  1. HD DVD sales collapse
  2. Why HD DVD is sinking fast
  3. HD DVD sales explode, format war rejoined?
  4. O2 downplays iPhone sales figures
  5. Blu-ray races ahead of HD DVD in Europe

Tags: blu-ray, downloads, format war

One Response to “Blu-ray sales stumble, fall”

  1. Blu-ray sales stumble, fall

    25. Sep, 2008

    [...] Darren Murph wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWhether you agree with my 5 reasons why Blu-ray will die article or not, the latest news from Nielsen VideoScan in the USA won’t make for happy reading – especially for the PS3 fanboys out there. [...]