In its early stages, one of the main reasons why Blu-ray has not managed to become truly mainstream has been related directly to the “war” it waged against its “arch-nemesis,” the HD-DVD backed by Toshiba. However, that particular format died over one year ago, and since then, the popularity of Sony's high-definition bound disc format has been constantly on the rise.

And now, a report issued by NPD, one of the world's most important market research companies, reveals the fact that, during the first quarter of 2009, the sales of stand-alone Blu-ray players in the U.S. grew to more than 400,000 units, an increase of 72 percent over Q1 2008. And what's really interesting here is that these sales figures were recorded in a period of economic crisis, as well as during a quarter that's not particularly well-known for being a very profitable one for the CE industry.

Moreover, the same study revealed that overall consumer awareness of the BD format in the United States reached 90 percent in the past six months. Purchase intent for Blu-ray set-top boxes also rose slightly in NPD’s most recent tracking surveys, with 6 percent of respondents saying they would be “extremely or very likely” to buy in the next six months, compared with 5 percent who responded similarly in the August report. Despite these high awareness levels, more than half of adults (58 percent) continued to report that they were still “not very familiar” with BD.

One of the main reasons why the rate of adoption for Blu-ray devices has increased so much lately is the fact that, according to the same report, the average selling price for a stand-alone BD player fell nearly 34 percent, from $393 dollars in Q1 2008 to $261 in Q1 2009.

"The rising penetration of high-definition televisions and lower Blu-ray player prices are broadening the format’s market opportunity," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD. "Even as options expand for accessing movies digitally, Blu-ray is carrying forward the widespread appeal of DVD into the high-definition marketplace."

Of course, it remains to be seen just how the future of the Blu-ray format will be affected by the latest digital content delivery technologies, but since the format's popularity is on the rise even during this period plagued by the economic crisis, the perspectives are pretty good.


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