NPD Confirms Huge Blu-ray Share Jump
Posted by Dave Cowl on January 23, 2008
Filed Under: Blu-ray, Format War, HD DVD, Retailers
Twice is reporting confirmation from NPD directly relating to the leaked figures showing that Blu-ray made huge gains in market share for the second week of January.
The correct break down according to the Twice article is 90% for Blu-ray, 7% for HD DVD and the remainder for Blu-ray/HD DVD combo players.
It is also interesting to note that the revenue share for HD DVD players was only 4%, due to the lower cost for these units. The combo players had a higher revenue share than HD DVD for that week due to their higher price point.
Sony was the market leader with 34% unit sales and 32% dollar share, Panasonic had 27% unit and 30% revenue, Sharp 23% unit and 22% revenue, Toshiba 7% unit and 4% revenue, Samsung 6% unit and 6% revenue, and LG 2% unit and 4% of the revenue.
NPD analysts commented that the shift does not necessarily represent a new trend or reflect the Warner news, citing Blu-ray promotions for the week may have been the biggest influence.
Perhaps the most interesting news was the total numbers for 2007. While we have been lead to believe that HD DVD has had higher standalone sales all year, the NPD totals show the unit sales were the same for both formats, each with 49% of the unit share, however Blu-ray Disc players had 58% of the revenue compared to HD DVD with only 37%. The remaining 2% unit sales were the combo players, with 5% of the revenue for 2007.
[Update] Home Media Magazine is reporting that Blu-ray Jan week 2 sales increased to 21,770, up from 15,257 in the first week of January and HD DVD sales dropped to 1,758, down from 14,558. So a large percentage of the ‘Blu-ray gain’ is in fact the 88 percent decrease in HD DVD sales between the first and second week of January.
Related posts:
Blu-ray promotions weren’t the biggest factor: uncertainty about whether or not HD DVD would even exist in the future was the biggest factor.
I think now that HD DVD players compete in price with upconverting DVD players, and Paramount and Universal re-affirming their continued support, that HD DVD players and discs will continue to sell, but at a rate slightly lower than they had historically.
I for one am going dual-format. I started buying Blu-ray discs the week of Warner’s announcement, and I’m waiting for a promotional deal on a PS3, or just before the end of the month, when the 5-free discs promo expires.
Of note, regarding earlier report…spike in sales #’s possibly attributed to special promotions, i.e. buy a certain TV, get a free BD player.
http://www.tvpredictions.com/warnerswitch012308.htm
Whoops, I see you did mention that already, disregard.
the article on this website quotes pro-blu ray seeing as how on twice it says a lot about how the promotional items of buying a tv and getting a useless profile 1.0 blu ray player was added in
All the blu-ray promotions in the world don’t explain the massive DROP in raw sales numbers for HD DVD players. People simply stopped buying them that week! Will be interesting to see future such numbers.
The Guardian has a good point – while BD sales increased, it seems that the 1:1 -> 12:1 is mostly due to a large drop in HD DVD sales. BTW, profile 1.0 players are not useless. And most of my report is about the actual numbers. I am sorry if the actual numbers are ‘pro Blu-ray’ – they are what they are.
I want to see how this CH DVD thing turns out, especially after what Ken said yesterday. I am assuming they are going to do their best to bundle in HD DVD players with the the TV’s. Considering how you can probably make a low cost HD DVD player, I don’t expect this increase in Blu Ray players to last very long, a majority of these are probably those that were bundled in.
Hey Dave, http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35741/98/
How is three extra weeks going to make any difference? Perhaps this is just because they chose to delay the last HD DVD releases by 3 weeks (like they did all of the other releases)? Mehar, do you have any thoughts on why an HD DVD player would be cheaper to make than a Blu-ray player?
The number of folks buying HD DVDs cannot be explained by the pro-Blu sales events, but the LACK of HD releases can. I for one am obsessed with buying new HD movies, but have been hard pressed for over a month to find a new release worth having – I’ve been grabbing catalog titles I missed the first time around. This hasn’t really been a great past few months in my opinion for new releases on the HD format.
It seems strange to me that January has very little coming out of Universal and Paramount. This is kinda what happened in 2007 also. It is a strange way to fight a \’software\’ battle – I have always said that compelling content is the key to selling players – cheap players are not going to sell a lack of compelling content…
Ryan, these numbers are for players, not discs…
On a non biased side, the HD DVD player would be cheaper, because, well they have always been cheaper. Toshiba needs to get as many players out their as possible, China is a huge growing market, they have a chance to get some ground in Asia. Would they not take it?
I know it’s for players – it’s just I think things from one aspect bleed over to other aspects of these numbers every week. I agree with Dave here – Universal & Paramount are not doing a very good job helping Toshiba out – put some more titles out! You have a lot of people supporting the format, who are browsing the aisles for new titles like myself. Give us something to walk out with!