Blu-ray is Not Taking the World By Storm

Although Blu-ray disc players have won the DVD formatting wars, a recent poll conducted by NPD Group Inc found that most HDTV owners aren’t planning to purchase the players any time soon. In fact, most HDTV owners aren’t planning to purchase a Blu-ray disc player within the next six months.

According to the poll conducted by NPD Group Inc, only 6% of those surveyed intend to purchase a Blu-ray disc player over the next six months. Similarly, only 9% of those owning HDTVs are planning to make the purchase. Therefore, the difference between those that do not own HDTVs and those that do is not very significant. In addition, no matter how you look at it, not too many people are planning to take the leap any time soon.

Although the majority if people still are not planning to purchase a Blu-ray disc player, the survey did find that an increasing number of people are aware of the technology. In June 2007, only 35% of people were familiar with Blu-ray technology. According to this more recent poll, 45% of those polled were aware of the players.

NPD Group had previously reported that the number of Blu-ray disc players sold in February was down by 40% when comparing January sales to February sales. In March, the sales were back up, but by only 3%. Therefore, Blu-ray has a long way to go in order to make up the ground it has lost and it doesn’t look like it will happen any time soon.