Sales of Blue-Ray players are down LOL

[AJ_Maine_Man]

Paramount Returns Yanked Blu-ray Titles To Stores


Paramount said Wednesday that it will put back on retail shelves 12 of the Blu-ray titles that it yanked when it agreed to market HD DVD titles only last August. They include: Aeon Flux, Babel, Black Snake Moan, Dreamgirls, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sleepy Hollow, The Untouchables and The Warriors. Pricing for the reissues was not announced. Meanwhile, it was reported Wednesday that since February, when Toshiba threw in the towel and abandoned the HD DVD format, sales of Blu-ray players have actually dropped Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD Group's Retail Tracking Service, told the Video Business website that continued slow sales of Blu-ray players show that "few consumers were dissuaded [from buying them] primarily by the 'format war.'" But Andy Parsons, spokesman for the Blu-ray Disc Assn., said that the real problem was that no one had expected Toshiba to fold so quickly and that retailers were left without enough players to satisfy demand. "We're just now beginning to recover," Parsons told the Los Angeles Times. "Many players are still on back order."


http://us.imdb.com/news/sb/2008-05-01/

[kch2003]

Why is that LOL? I personally want to see as much HD-Media as possible.

I guess the funny part is that our economy is in such $hit shape that sales on luxury items are going down?

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by kch2003

Why is that LOL? I personally want to see as much HD-Media as possible.

I guess the funny part is that our economy is in such $hit shape that sales on luxury items are going down?

No, the funny part is that Blu-ray sales went down after HD DVD threw in the towel and Andy Parsons blames it on lack of inventory from rising demand. That's a new one: when demand goes up, sales go down.

[kch2003]

Originally Posted by bruceames

No, the funny part is that Blu-ray sales went down after HD DVD threw in the towel.

Yes I see, but why insist on beating a dead horse?

This story has been covered so many times, and I'm pretty sure that study does ot count PS3 (flagship of Blu).

[AJ_Maine_Man]

ahhh your right they didnt count the PS3 (found that on another thead)

[bruceames]

True, but it's not a dead horse to many of us, as personally I don't check out the other forums much. Anyway, the topic is inappropriate for this forum.

[AJ_Maine_Man]

I wasn't sure where to put this really, I thought it was interesting that the pulled titles are being put back on the self (they make it sound like they were just sitting in a storeroom somewhere)

maybe someday there will be a couple of HD-DVD realeased they are sitting somewhere like maybe "Bee Movie"

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by AJ_Maine_Man

I wasn't sure where to put this really, I thought it was interesting that the pulled titles are being put back on the self (they make it sound like they were just sitting in a storeroom somewhere)

maybe someday there will be a couple of HD-DVD realeased they are sitting somewhere like maybe "Bee Movie"

No biggie. I didn't know that Paramount actually pulled SOME of the Blu-ray titles off the shelves, but not all of them. Very strange. Maybe they will mix in a few HD DVD Bee Movies in when the BLu-ray is released.

[Rich86]

Originally Posted by AJ_Maine_Man

ahhh your right they didnt count the PS3 (found that on another thead)

ah yes - the ps3 - apparently the only available blu-ray player that is reasonably reliable and upgradeable . . . this is actually a problem, in my opinion.

[Centauri]

Count me as one of the vindictive who is cheering at Blu's every stumble.

[The_Doctor]

I mentioned this at the tail end of another thread, however I think it does interest HD buyer/supporters because of the BS spin from sony and comments from WB that standalones sales 1. mattered to them and 2. were better on for blu in December. I hope the mods will let the HD group have a place to talk about this here outside of the smackdown or blu areas.

Originally Posted by Rich86

ah yes - the ps3 - apparently the only available blu-ray player that is reasonably reliable and upgradeable . . . this is actually a problem, in my opinion.

Actually that is a problem because the PS3 is not really a very good Blu player when compared to standalones. (Playstation 3: Not the best Blu-ray player you can buy)
Part of the problem at the heart of Blu as a format is the players are not capable of doing everything from day 1 (when that phone rings at 3AM ) and early adopters will be screwed IMO by having to buy new player in a another year(12-18 months). This is mentioned in one of the articles as a good thing (that sales are slow) because of the inept hardware currently available will have to be replaced in another year and buying obsolete players could upset consumers.

They also said that sale were not likely to pick up until Xmas. And then stipulated that $200 players at that time would be partly responsible. $200 players which sony said is unlikely to happen in 2008, and a maybe for 2009.

The spin from sony is priceless, more things change the more they stay the same. Sony was not ready to win the format war, this may be Toshiba greatest coup. Sony has everything fall into their lap and so far has bungled it, bungled it so completely 2008 looks like it will be a write off year. They have done nothing to secure their victory, Studio and retailers have gotten in lock step (with blatantly anti-consumer actions) and this has not given the victory over. It may have secured Blus place aa a middle format in between the last great thing (DVD) and the next great thing to come (maybe being work on in Toshiba's lab?), but never be the IT product envisioned.

Originally Posted by Blu ray player sales fell in february and now struggle

...standalone Blu-ray player sales tumbled 40% between January and February and then improved by only 2% in March.
So far the NPD has decided against releasing sales figures for Blu-ray players for April due to how low Blu-ray player sales have been, as it fears the updated figures would make it easy to identify individual retailers.

(This is even more pathetic because it counts January when the famous free players with TV purchase "outsold HD DVD", Also Despite Sony's claims Blu players were and are widely available, supplies outstrip the demand)

The common knowledge that two formats confused things has been disproved. I think the next revelation may be that studios and Sony are pushing something that consumers have no desire for. Or in a form that is not desirable to them.

Utilizing DVD better with new technology may end up become the new wave, since it seems upconverting players are becoming vastly more popular.

In the end who knows for sure.

[AV_Integrated]

THREAD CLOSED

This is not appropriate for this section of the site, and is already being discussed in the Sales section of the Smackdown in detail.