With less than 10 percent of Americans still unaware of either the HD-DVD or Blu-ray HD home video formats, a marketing research firm contends that Blu-ray has taken the lead.
Parks Associates, a market research and consulting company, predicts that more than 32 million HD-DVD and Blu-ray optical disc players will be sold in the United States by 2011. That’s an 85 percent increase from the 4.9 million units to be sold this year.
However, the firm said there is early evidence that Blu-ray could win.
“Purchasing or renting DVDs will continue to be a dominant way for consumers to view content,” said Chris Roden, a research analyst at Parks Associates. “What has yet to be determined is which format will become the standard, HD-DVD or Blu-ray?”
“However, we are starting to see the pendulum swing slowly in one direction,” said Roden. “Recent retail developments, support from major Hollywood studios, and inclusion of the format in the PlayStation 3 puts the Blu-ray format in the lead.”
The report is titled “Next Generation DVD Players: Will History Repeat?”
