Last year, the Blu-ray industry saw an incredible boom in sales and production. Not only did the industry grow 400% in comparison to the previous year in Europe, but the discounted prices of HDTVs and Blu-ray players allowed the media format to top the lists of most HDTV owners as their most sought after gift. This year, Futuresource Consultants believe that Blu-ray will sell over one hundred million discs.
"In the USA, Blu-ray has moved from early adopter phase through to early majority, with the format gaining real traction in the marketplace," said Mai Hoang, a senior market analyst at Futuresource.
Hoang also revealed that over 24 million discs were sold in North America alone in 2008. This year though, Hoang expects Americans will buy roughly 80 million discs while the rest of the world contributes sales in excess of 20 million.
A colleague of Hoang, Jim Bottoms, feels that Blu-ray will take over majority market share from DVD come 2012.
"By 2012, around 50 per cent of US and 35 per cent of Western European video disc retail sale volumes will be Blu-ray," states Bottoms.
We know that we’ve enjoyed our Blu-ray experiences through our PlayStation 3 consoles, and will continue to do so as the years roll by. Do you plan on contributing to this astronomical number throughout 2009?