People Can't Tell Difference between Blu-Ray and DVD

Hot on the heels of last week’s report from ABI Research noting thatmany consumers may not see the picture quality difference betweenBlu-ray and standard DVDs comes the latest Blu-ray sales figures fromNPD Group. And they’re not pretty.
According to NPD, sales of Blu-ray standalone players plummeted 40percent from January to February, then rose a scant 2 percent fromFebruary to March. The general consensus was that once Toshiba droppedits support for the HD DVD format early this year, sales would increase.
In fact, sales of Blu-ray standalone players remain so low that NPDhas not yet released actual numbers, for fear that it would be easy toidentify individual retailers. The research group will start to giveactual figures later this year, said Ross Rubin, director of industryanalysis at NPD.
The end of the format wars clearly did little to boost Blu-ray’sprospects. Like others, Mr. Rubin said the much cheaper upconvertingstandard DVD players are winning consumers’ hearts and wallets.

The price of upconverting players is hovering around $70. And thisweek, Amazon is giving them away for free when consumers purchasecertain Samsung TVs. The result: a 5 percent uptick in upconverting DVDplayer sales in the first quarter of 2008, compared to same quarter ayear ago, and a 39 percent decline in players that don’t have thatfeature.
With Blu-ray players still costing more than $300 — and a number ofplayers on the market still lacking some Blu-ray features like Internetconnectivity — NPD now figures that Blu-ray’s future won’t be clearuntil this Christmas, when prices should drop to the $200 range.
ABI Research is even less optimistic. In a report releasedyesterday, the research firm figures it could take until October 2009until Blu-ray gains a foothold in the market.