According to a new market report from Understanding & Solutions, both Blu-ray and HD DVD player prices should decline significantly in early 2008.
Consumers can purchase HD DVD players for less than $200 and Blu-ray player prices have dropped to below $300 at some online venues. This is just the beginning, according to Bill Foster, Understanding & Solutions’ senior technology consultant. “Drive, chipset, and other system components are now benefiting from economies of scale,” Foster said in a statement.
“In early 2008, we’re going to see the bill of materials for a basic high-definition player, in either format, weighing in at less than $150,” Foster said, “and that’s going to impact the high street very soon, providing the consumer with a choice of low price players that allow consumer electronics companies a margin for profit.”
Format Clarity in 2008
The research group predicted that if both formats continue to sell, HD DVD and Blu-ray players will retail below $100 by 2011.
“Crucially, Blu-ray benefits from stronger Hollywood Studio support and represents a greater proportion of high definition disc production volumes and disc sales,” said Jeremy Wills, a consultant at Understanding & Solutions. “To date, Paramount’s move to sole support of HD DVD has failed to turn the market, despite the HD DVD exclusivity of key titles Transformers and Shrek the Third.”
Notably, Blu-ray still represented over 70 percent of HD movie sales in the
U.S. during the week Transformers was released on HD DVD. As demand grows and manufacturing volumes build, Wills predicted, the market will see the costs of releasing on two different formats start to add up. Wills suggested that there might be surprises just around the corner, and that we could see a lot more clarity on these issues in 2008.
Consumer Confusion Persists
Despite all this action in the HD…