Blu-ray quickly catching up to DVD in Japan
By Mike Ferro
As far as new technology adoption rate goes, Japan has always been on the cutting edge. For example, the flat panel TV adoption rate sky rocketed in Japan before it even started taking off here in the States. According to reports, Blu-ray has exceeded 30% of DVD player/recorder shipments in Japan.
According to Tech-On!, Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) revealed statistics that indicate a surge in Blu-ray demand in Japan. According to the statistics, Blu-ray is huge in Japan and is gaining popularity rapidly. Regular Blu-ray Disc recorder/player shipments have reached 138,000 units, which is about 107 times more than what it was last year.
Consumer electronics shipments in general rose 4.5% compared to same time last year. This increase is attributed to the new demand for Blu-ray and flat panel TVs. Current Blu-ray shipments represent approximately 31% of DVD player/recorder shipments.
(Graph courtesy of Tech-On!)
Just last week I wrote a story where the British Video Association (BVA) released statistics indicating an increase of 396% in the UK for Blu-ray movie sales. With the explosive growth of Blu-ray in Japan and in Europe it seems more than likely that Blu-ray is here to stay.
With retailers and manufactures gearing up for the holidays across the world, huge price cuts to the Blu-ray players are anticipated. During the past holidays portable DVD players and VCR/DVD combos were a hit. I have a feeling that Blu-ray will be the new holiday gift to get this season.
As manufactures start to drop the price of the Blu-ray players, demand should increase accordingly. Many anticipate a drop in Blu-ray player price to as low as $200 this holiday season.
The only thing that could hamper Blu-ray sales is if HD TV sales do not go up. However, analysts predict that a huge surge in Blu-ray demand will happen with the official switch to digital in the United States after February 2009.
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October 26th, 2008
Those are shipped numbers btw, not independantly verified sales numbers.
But in any case everyone knows Japan is a special case all of it’s own when it comes to CE stuff.
November 4th, 2008
There is always many potential market in Japan, especially in IT technology.