Consumer intent to buy Blu-ray grows

[teamerickson]

NPD Group: Consumer intent to buy Blu-ray grows - 3/14/2008 - Video Business

MARCH 14 | Consumers are increasingly primed to purchase Blu-ray Disc players, according to NPD Group research conducted around the time of the format’s formal victory.

For the week ended Feb. 20, coinciding with Toshiba’s official exit from the HD DVD business, 10.8% of NPD survey respondents said they would purchase a BD player in the next six months.

This marks the strongest BD intent results NPD has recorded since it started to track high-definition hardware adoption in July 2006. Those results also trump survey respondents’ intent to buy HD DVD players, which clock in at 8.8% for the same week, with the margin between BD and HD DVD the largest BD has enjoyed since NPD began tracking.

Through the first few weeks of February, BD intent has been edging up steadily. Over the same frame, HD DVD intent slid to its lowest point in several months, according to NPD.

In mid-January, NPD respondents indicated they were slightly more likely to buy HD DVD players (10.1%) than Blu-ray players (8.1%), even after Warner Bros. Entertainment announced it was turning its back on HD DVD. However, consumer intent for BD was climbing, as desire for HD DVD was flattening at that time.

Overall, consumers are not chomping at the bit for BD, admits Russ Crupnick, NPD VP/senior industry analyst of entertainment. But he believes it is notable that intent is rising at all during what is normally a soft season for consumer electronics purchases, which tend of be highest during the run-up to events such as the Super Bowl.

“This [intent hike] happened during a quiet part of the year after the Super Bowl, and there was bad weather for shopping” in parts of the U.S., said Crupnick. “So the fact that the number continues to go up is a good sign, and it has been a significant jump.”

Crupnick projects the current level of consumer intent-to-buy BD could translate into 2 million BD set-top unit sales over the next six months. That is based on the assumption that one-quarter of those 10.8% who say they intend to buy BD actually do.

 

[randers29259]

Ok does it seem odd to anyone else, that many people intend to purchase an HD-DVD with in the next 6 months

 

[charper1]

Some, but not too much; they likely still see the "dump" pricing , think they are getting a steal, and have no clue that the discs too are going to stop or just have no idea the format as a whole is being halted. These will be the people to follow up with a lawsuit later how they were deceived and lied too. LOL!

 

[diogen]

These will be the people to follow up with a lawsuit later how they were deceived and lied too. LOL!

Who will be on the other side of such lawsuits? Toshiba? Studios? Retailers?

Diogen.

 

[charper1]

Thus the LOL! You know how people always resort to frivolous lawsuits once they figure out they screwed THEMSELVES for failing to read or pay attention! Lawyers have people convinced to just make a threat to get a settlement regardless of right vs wrong.

 

[diogen]

Thus the LOL!

Sorry, missed that...

It can happen.
I recall few years ago Toshiba settling such a lawsuit brought against them for faulty floppies in laptops. IIRC it cost them some $1 billion (!!).

This time I can't see what the claimed offense will be. It must have "misleading" somewhere, but who will be the defendant?

BTW, I picked up yesterday the (last!) $50 360 HD add-on from local BestBuy. They never had a decent HD/BD setup to showcase the
formats: so-so footage, 720p displays most of the time, tucked away somewhere in the corner.
It has changed!
A nice comfy couch in front of a Sony 1080p LCoS TV with decent Infinity speakers. In the center of the store! Playing King Kong on a A35...

Diogen.

 

[navychop]

IIRC, those floppy drives were in fact faulty.

If I had just a few HD DVDs, I'd say time to cut my losses and move on to Blu-ray. If I had dozens of them, or even over a hundred (I've seen one post claiming over 300), then it might well make sense to keep an HD DVD player, and maybe one or two for spares/other room use, and the purchase of a few more titles- assuming cheap purchase prices (almost a given). There will be many years of viewing of those old HD DVDs. And it puts off buying a Blu-ray player until prices come down and the likely need for firmware updates recedes.

But eventually, I think a large majority of HD DVD owners will move to Blu-ray. Either in place of, or in addition to, HD DVD. Despite the fervent wishes of some, HD optical media has a good future. In the long run, all those old HD DVD discs will be next to worthless. But also in the long run, we are all dead.