While the format war may be over, market data released by ABI Research
shows that Blu-ray still faces a number of challenges. According to their new report, consumers are satisfied with the quality delivered
by standard DVD players and that the install base of dedicated and PC-based Blu-ray players is still very small.
One of
the primary challenges facing Blu-ray, says principal analyst Steve Wilson, is that many consumers are not fundamentally dissatisfied
with the quality delivered by their conventional DVD players, when “upconverted” to play on high-definition TVs. “We are starting to see
an increase in the number of DVD players with built-in upconverters, and the video processing is getting better with each new
generation,” he says. “Today about 35% of all DVD players sold include upconversion. ABI Research expects that figure to climb to about
60% by 2013.”
Further, the state of the Blu-ray player market is not all that encouraging. The Blu-ray installed base today is
heavily tilted towards Sony’s Playstation 3. Says Wilson, “The studios better hope that people are playing movies on their Playstations.
Otherwise there’s very little installed base. In 2008 about 85% of the Blu-ray players in the market will be found in PS3s; the
dedicated consumer electronics and PC-based types of Blu-ray players won’t catch up in terms of market share until about
2013.”
More information on ABI Research's report can be found here.