Study: Blu-ray Format to Reach 29 Million Global Homes in 2008

LONDON, March 27: With the
recent withdrawal of Toshiba’s HD DVD from the high-definition DVD format war,
the Blu-ray format is expected to reach 29.4 million homes worldwide by the end
of 2008, according to the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service.

The new study, Blu-ray
Devices: Forecasting Sales and Ownership, notes that Sony’s PS3 games console will continue to drive the
Blu-ray market until 2009, after which stand-alone Blu-ray players will become
the dominant segment. By 2012, more than 132 million homes worldwide will own
at least one Blu-ray device. The Strategy Analytics report predicts that global
sales of Blu-ray devices will reach 18.8 million units in 2008, including 4 million
stand-alone players, 13 million consoles and nearly 2 million PCs. By 2012,
annual sales of all Blu-ray devices will reach 57.4 million units. The largest
market will be in Europe with 26.4 million, followed by the U.S. (22.6 million)
and Japan (8.4 million).

“HD DVD’s withdrawal
leaves the way open for Blu-ray to become a major revenue earner for technology
vendors and content owners alike,” said David Mercer, a principal analyst at
Strategy Analytics. “The 265 million homes that will own an HDTV by 2012, and
Hollywood’s need for a new growth engine, represent huge incentives for the
industry to coordinate marketing activities and demonstrate unified support for
the successor to DVD.”

—By Irene Lew