The future of the DVD market is a blue-laser-equipped high-definition DVD, but that won’t arrive without casualties in the competing technology camps, the companies supplying the equipment, and consumers.
That’s the assessment of In-Stat analyst Chris Kissel. Blue-laser-based DVD devices, Blu-ray and HD DVD, also will enter the market at premium prices, he said.
According to a new In-Stat report, “Who’s Blu? Next Generation DVD Recorders and Players,” 176 million DVD player and recorder units will be sold in 2010, up from 140.8 million last year.
The report also found that:
- With the servo chipset, optical pick-up, H.264 decoder and royalties making up the majority of the cost, the initial estimates for the bill of materials for blue-laser disc players is more than $400. Most of the costs are forecasted to decline considerably over the forecast period, except for royalties
- Consumers who have hard drive discs on their DVD recorders are more likely to record content than consumers with only a recorder drive.
- DVD recorders are evolving into devices that become a part of a media center/server system.
For more information, visit www.in-stat.com.
