Sony Thinks Blu-ray Will Sell Like DVDs by Year End

An anonymous reader writes "Sony CEO Ryoji Chubachi knows something we don't. At a press conference, he announced Sony's plan to increase Blu-ray market share to 50% of all movie discs by the end of the year. 'DVD and BD currently account for about 80% and 20%, respectively, of global demand for movie discs, Chubachi indicated. The new BD devices to be offered by Sony include models integrating an HD LCD TV with BD recording functionality, Chubachi pointed out. Sony has relied mainly on the PlayStation 3 (PS3) to promote BD, and sales of the game console will increase along with the offering by top Hollywood studios of new BD movies, Chubachi noted. However, Sony will extend its BD promotion from the current focus on the PS3 and BD players/recorders to IT devices, Chubachi pointed out.'"

Comments

Re:Then you had better lower those prices!

[Gr8Apes]

However, once you have a BD player, are you going to buy a DVD or a BD of the latest movie. I'd hazard a guess that most folk would opt for the new technology.

You're assuming I'll buy a BD player. Once they're under $200, I might think about it, but it won't be a Sony model. Pioneer, Panasonic, or Philips would be fine. (even though you're still paying a Sony tariff) Hopefully by the time the players and disks hit the acceptable cost range, something new will have arrived. It cost Sony buckets of cash to buy the format war, so I don't see prices dropping anytime soon.

Assuming they make a decent royalty off each disc, it may even be in their interest to subsidise the player cost to boost uptake. The royalties are why prices will have to remain high for the foreseeable future. Sony mortgaged the farm to buy the win, so they have by some calculations more than $1B to recover before they will actually start making a profit. That's hard to do with $250+ hardware selling below cost.