Quote:
Originally Posted by LeChuck
Sounds a bit more like someone is hoping writing some post hoc ergo propter hoc new report is going to make some entertaining and very sly news. There is a lot more to consider than just the death of HD when it comes to BD sales such as it is March (a slow reatail time of year), there is a recession to boot, and blue is not really in right now. I would say that until much more time has passed and the economy has resettled itself, there is no point to even bothering with such hasty and misguided interpretations.
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Well, on one hand you are right. On the other hand, there is nothing misguided necessarily about saying the death of HD DVD hasn't helped Blu-ray yet. If the sales figures show that there hasn't been a significant increase in sales, then it is true that the death of HD DVD hasn't helped Blu-ray at this point in time. That of course may change in six months, but for now it seems that Blu-ray sales are a bit flat.
I think this is due to a lot of factors, personally:
1. US Economy.
2. Street prices of both Blu-ray players and discs were raised after HD DVD died - players that were selling for $300-$400 all of a sudden jumped to $400-$500 and discs that were 50% off or BOGO/B2G1 most of the time jumped to 15-30% discount at best most of the time.
3. Transition period for players, with more full-featured models arriving in May-August.
4. Typical dip in spending after a spending season.
5. Many of the 1million+ people who invested in HD DVD may not be so eager to adopt a technology that still has not proven itself as a mainstream winner, especially after their own format was essentially artificially killed off by one of the studios trying to sell goods on the new format.
6. Possible that some of the Blu-ray sales were spurned by Playstation 3 gamers who wanted to support the technology deeply integrated into their video game system of choice; this excitement may now have died off with the end of the "war."
7. Infrastructure for Blu-ray players and Blu-ray discs is still not mature enough to facilitate buying of players/discs by the masses.
8. Ever-looming threat of HD-downloads surpassing HD-on disc in the future mentioned in every other article that mentions Blu-ray; not helped by recent actions of studios like Warner Bros of allowing day-and-date sales of movies on Apple TV.
That is not to say that there weren't reasons that Blu-ray sales *should* have gone up, though:
1. Obviously WB's decision + HD DVD's folding you'd think would have caused a massive spike in BD sales if most people were really excited about it - while demand did raise briefly, it seems after January that demand fell off.
2. Less competition = less confusion for J6P = more sales.
3. Without having to stock both formats, stores should have been able to lower prices more since there is less overhead now.
4. Marketing is not diluted by counter-marketing
5. People who were fans of Blu-ray should be less hesitant to spend money on the technology now that it is the guaranteed victor of the format war. Buying players for other rooms, more movies, etc.
6. Announcement of stimulus package in late-Jan should have assuaged fears of some about US economy.
So, HD DVD is only part of the situation - but it does appear that right now there has not been any massive boost in sales as a result of killing off HD DVD. Again, that may change in the future.