Unlike the situation in most other regions of the globe, sales of Blu-ray Disc recorders are climbing rapidly in Japan (which is, after all, the HD technology’s origin of birth), as an accelerating number of Japanese consumers have taken the format plunge upon the demise early this year of lone competitor HD DVD.
For the first time, last month the far more expensive Blu-ray player/recorders beat out older-gen DVD recorders in “value of sales,” meaning more money was spent buying the Blu-ray units, albeit fewer units were sold than standard DVD players. About a third of disc machines sold in Japan are now Blu-ray, according to stats from BCN Ltd., a Japanese analyst.
BCN said April sales for Blu-ray units in Japan were nearly three times the 12.4 percent share for both formats in January of this year (prior to HD-DVD’s death).
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