In an article that appears to declare that Blu-ray Disc will cross the threshold this holiday sales season from being a new and promising video-disc format to a given that it will soon replace standard DVD, the New York Times declares that "even as the country moves tentatively out of a recession, consumers are buying the devices at a faster pace than they bought previous generations of movie players like the VCR and the DVD player."
As industry analysts predict that sales of Blu-ray players—which recently hit the $100-and-below level in some sales events—will be up more than 100 percent over the 2008 holiday season, the paper calls Blu-ray "one of the true bright spots in retailing this holiday season."
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, Blu-ray's household penetration is higher than standard DVD was over the same time frame following each product's introduction. Blu-ray players were introduced roughly three years ago (at first in mortal combat with then-lone competitor HD DVD) and now reside in about 7 percent of American homes (excluding PlayStation 3 game consoles).
Two big reasons, among others, are cited by media analyst iSuppli and the Blu-ray Disc Association as contributing to Blu-ray's success: 1) Products going for $100 or less are susceptible to impulse-buying; and 2) a growing number of homes have 1080p TV sets that can only reap the benefits of full 1080p video/audio (at least for the moment) from Blu-ray's 1080p format.
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