Blu-ray Waits to Join the PC Party.

This article copied directly from the Markertek RSS Newsfeed. With no good way to link directly to this article only, I am cutting and pasting. The newsfeed can be found at http://www.markertek.com/rss.asp.

This article is important because it is going to influence how long it will be before we suggest to our clients and colleagues that Blu-ray become a defacto distribution choice.


Blu-ray Waits to Join the PC Party.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Despite the recent rapid rise in the sales of consumer Blu-ray players, a fall in their prices and an increase in the number of high-definition movie titles, Blu-ray Drives (BDs) in PC systems are - for now - being left in the blue. According to iSuppli, By 2013, Blu-ray drives will be found in only 16.3 percent of new PCs shipped, up from the scant 3.6 percent of BDs currently being shipped with new consumer computers. BDs wont be replacing DVDs as the primary optical drive in PC systems through at least the year 2013, said Michael Yang, senior analyst for storage and mobile memory at iSuppli. They eventually will find success, but during the next five years, that success will be limited in the PC segment. According to Yang, the two main reasons hampering the adoption of Blu-ray drives in PCs include costs as well as the lack of a library of movies that justifies the need for consumers to move to a different drive in their PCs. Cost, Yang said, is the primary impediment. Given the high price of the product, consumers are unwilling to pay the extra money in order to obtain a high-definition drive. The cost issue is amplified by the fact that the library of content is so small that there really isnt a reason for users to switch at the moment, Yang added. And while this is changing and studios are rolling out more Blu-ray content every week, there remains a long way to go. However, the struggle to become the standard storage medium in the PC world is nothing new. From a historical perspective, each of the successful storage media in PCs has gained popularity only when content became available and when consumers actually understood that what they were getting was easy to use and worth the cost. For instance, the once-ubiquitous 3.5-inch floppy drive had a life span of 15-plus years, surviving well past its prime. Eventually, it was replaced by CD-ROMs - which, in turn, gave way to DVD drives. A changeover occurred and the floppy disk finally supplanted when it became apparent that CD-ROMs not only offered a distinct advantage but were also the medium being adopted by everything from music to games to movies. According to Yang, the moment has not yet come for Blu-ray. Until cost declines and user awareness and knowledge increases, Blu-ray will have to wait.