Bad signs for Blu-ray abound

In this month's issue of Wired magazine, Sony and Microsoft splurged on a full-page insert that includes a Blu-ray DVD. The disc is the "director's cut" of Coma, a seven-part noir-esque crime thriller.

On the back of the insert, there's a plug for Vista and the Sony Vaio. I don't know how much this is costing Sony and its partners, but it can't be cheap - Wired's paid circulation is 706,494, and this press release indicates that other magazines may be involved.

Have Sony and its Blu-ray backers come to this - using a marketing tactic reminiscent of 90s-style software and music giveaways in an attempt to boost Blu-ray? Remember, this was a technology that people were supposed to rush out and buy after Blu-ray won the HD format battle with HD-DVD. Sony president Ryoji

Chubachi even expressed a goal back in April that Blu-ray would grow to a global market share of 50 per cent in 2008. There's already strong evidence that Blu-ray's market share is declining, at least in the US, according to recent data from Nielsen VideoScan published on EngadgetHD.

In The Industry Standard's prediction market, there's a prediction that Blu-ray's market share will not break 50 per cent by the end of this year. That's a no-brainer. Our readers are largely behind this prediction, with community consensus currently standing at 82 per cent. Another prediction that Blu-ray player prices would drop below $250 by Thanksgiving was judged three months early after one model hit $249.47 (with a rebate). How low can prices go for the players? This morning, another reader pointed us to news that models by Sony and Samsung are selling for less than $200, including shipping. The Engadget author calls the Sony BDP-S300 deal "unquestionably delectable." Sony better hope that mainstream consumers feel the same way, or the company risks another weak Christmas for Blu-ray this year -- and losing out in an even bigger way when consumers begin to turn to the Internet for their HD content.

• Email
• Print
• Permalink
• Contact Us

• RSS
• Digg
• Tweet

Email A Friend

Email this article to a friend or colleague:

PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

Permalink This Article

This articles permalink is:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=442&blogid=8

Comments received

richy said on Tuesday, 23 September 2008

hmm, sounds a bit like sour grapes this. i'm sure macworld would have taken the money if sony needed to push blu-ray with mac users. let's face it, people still need to be convinced that it offers a better viewing experience, my dvd still looks good enough for me. there's still a lot of convincing to do, so giving a disc away to more techie minded people is a good idea. how long before one is stuck to the front of macworld? oh, hang on, our macs don't have blu-ray players in....

richy said on Tuesday, 23 September 2008

hmm, sounds a bit like sour grapes this. i'm sure macworld would have taken the money if sony needed to push blu-ray with mac users. let's face it, people still need to be convinced that it offers a better viewing experience, my dvd still looks good enough for me. there's still a lot of convincing to do, so giving a disc away to more techie minded people is a good idea. how long before one is stuck to the front of macworld? oh, hang on, our macs don't have blu-ray players in....

Pipgt said on Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Blue ray is here to stay for the forseable future we need a medium for data sales especially for HD gaming films and possibly lossless music. I see the BD problem as the masses not being properly informed. Most non geeky people I speak to still think the BD & HD DVD war is still on. we need BD so lets get on with it. The producers of BD players are draging their feet you simply cant get a decent BD player at any cost hence I use a PS3. You wont catch me paying £10 to download a HD film from itunes that more criminal than the prices Sky charge to watch a film. Fill the shops with good quality BD films and players and the public will buy them all day long.

Haku said on Tuesday, 23 September 2008

"...a marketing tactic reminiscent of 90s-style software and music giveaways" eh?

Perhaps not the most sensible article to post on the website of a magazine that still carries a CD-ROM every month...

I think Blu-ray is doing just fine. Laserdisc survived as a format for years as a somewhat niche product before DVD came along, and I think even when downloads become feasible and dominant (which is some years off I think) there will probably be a healthy BD market.

gregorsamsa said on Wednesday, 24 September 2008

The take-up of Blu-Ray is likely to be fairly modest for the foreseeable future for 2 reasons: the disks are still far too expensive compared to standard DVDs; + the technological advance offered by Blu-Ray is nothing like the huge leap taken when going from video tape to DVD not that many years ago.

Alistair Mackenzie said on Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Blu-ray will probably crash and burn. Nobody wants to upgrade their hardware now and then have to throw it away in two years time when the internet delivers Full High Def through iTunes or whatever.
People have better things to spend their money on at the moment, what with the credit crunch and all.
Technologies fail when they don't give enough of a benefit compared to cost and this seems to be the case here combined with a stupid format war (didn't VHS teach them anything?).
I certainly don't feel inclined to enrich the movie business by throwing all my content away (for the second time) and re-purchasing it.