3 Firms Running Close Race in Japanese Blu-ray Recorder Market

[zombieflanders]

The competition in the market of Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorders is changing of late in Japan. Sony Corp, which had acquired 2/3 of overall unit sales in Japan in January 2008, saw its share gradually shrink since February and barely nosed out Sharp Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd in July.

The shares of Sony, Sharp and Matsushita share were 33.6, 32.8 and 32.1%, respectively, according to sales results at 26 volume retailers of home appliances summed up by research company BCN Inc. Competition for market share among manufacturers has been intensifying since Blu-ray began spreading in earnest.

BD recorder sales accounted for 40% of the DVD recorder market on a unit basis and 60% on a value basis in July 2007. Overall DVD recorder sales also outperformed last year's sales for three months in a row since May 2008. On a value basis, overall DVD recorder sales grew more than 30% year-on-year (YoY) for two consecutive months in June and July.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english...080807/156193/

[zombieflanders]

And an interesting bit of news that bodes well for BD player sales:

Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. <4902> said Thursday that it secured a net profit increase in April-June thanks to a special profit from the sale of a subsidiary.

Group net profit rose 9.3 pct from a year before to 17,628 million yen on sales of 255,139 million yen, up 1.1 pct. Operating profit fell 1.0 pct to 24,478 million yen.

Sales in the optics division grew 36.2 pct on the back of strong performances of films for large liquid crystal display televisions and optical pick-up lenses for Blu-ray Disc new-generation DVD devices.

http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=19356