DIGISTOR's Blu-ray & DVD Industry Trends

This Industry Trends section is a compilation of latest optical storage and optical media industry trends and developments compiled by DIGISTOR for the benefit of partners and consumers alike.

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• » December 2008 Industry Trends

  • › Consumers Embrace Blu-ray Digital Copy Feature

    • The ability to transfer digital copy from purchased Blu-ray and DVD disc to portable devices has potential to extend life of physical discs and increase time consumers spend with home entertainment, a survey says.

      Based on new consumer survey information from The NPD Group, U.S. consumers who have purchased a video on DVD or Blu-ray Disc (BD) are enthusiastic about Digital Copy, which is a new feature available on many new video releases. In addition to the ability to play the video on a DVD or BD player, Digital Copy provides owners with a legal digital duplicate of the content, which can be played on their iPods, smartphones and other portable devices, as well as on personal computers. Read More >

  • › Blu-ray Recorders Outpace DVD in Japan

    • The market share for Blu-ray disc recorders has finally taken control of more than 50 percent of the consumer market in Japan, according to new recent numbers compiled by GfK Retail and Technology.

      In April 2002, DVD recorders had 10 percent of the Japanese market share, and continued to pick up steam up until 2008. Now that the price of Blu-ray recorders has finally started to drop, expect sales numbers to begin to pick in other parts of the world besides Japan. Read More >

  • › Inventory Key to Staying Afloat Next Year

    • Inventory management will be a key factor in 2009's growth opportunity. Gartner has noted inventory as a concern since mid-2008 and Future Horizons has made specific note of inventory's role in the 2001 electronics industry downturn and as a determining factor for next year's possibilities.

      The role of inventory has been evident in the analog sector in the current quarter. Fairchild, National Semiconductor, and ADI (Analog Devices Inc) all noted tightened ordering from distributors in their financial statements made in recent weeks. ADI, the last of the three companies to make financial statements in late November, said that on the "chaos out there" with regard to the downturn and inventory consumption, it would reduce the utilization and output of its factories. Read More >
• » November 2008 Industry Trends

  • › Panasonic proposes 3D Blu-ray Disc standard

    • Panasonic has formally submitted a proposal to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) related to a three-dimensional (3D) imagery standard that would create guidelines for "left / right-eye two-channel Full HD images" used on high-definition TVs with Blu-ray.

      The new 3D standard by Panasonic already uses existing standards, which may help convince the BDA to approve it in a more timely manner. The Japanese juggernaut hopes to avoid a standards war and patent issues by announcing the standard proposal ahead of other companies working in the growing HDTV and Blu-ray sectors. Read More >

  • › Demand For Blu-ray Discs, Drives to Grow in 2009

    • The Taiwanese optical storage industry expects a significant growth in the demand of both Blu-ray drives and discs next year.

      The first Blu-ray recorders for PCs were shipped more than two years ago but their retail price was too high to become mainstream, even among A/V professionals. Both components and licencing fees for the Blu-ray devices have remained high during these years, directly affecting their retail price. Read More >

  • › Western Europe PC market grew 24 per cent in Q3 2008 says Gartner

    • PC shipments in Western Europe totalled 17.2 million units in the third quarter of 2008, an increase of 24.3 per cent from the same period in 2007.

      The PC market in Western Europe continued to show double digit growth throughout 2008 with nearly all countries across the region posting strong increases as mini-notebooks boosted overall growth. "The market position of vendors was largely determined by those that shipped mini-notebooks and those that did not," said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner, based in the UK. "As a result, Acer moved to the top position in Western Europe, ahead of HP for the first time ever." Read More >

  • › Notebook shipments surpass desktops in the U.S. for first time, says IDC

    • The third quarter of 2008 (3Q08) saw notebook shipments into the U.S. market surpass 50% share, topping quarterly desktop PC shipments for the first time in the history of the industry. The share of notebooks shipped in the U.S. in 3Q08 stood at a solid 55.2%, according to preliminary figures from IDC's U.S. Quarterly PC Tracker.

      The 55% ratio was made possible by a record volume of notebooks shipped in 3Q08 – over 9.5 million units – representing more than 18% growth both year over year and on a sequential basis, according to IDC's preliminary data. These figures were reached amid a relatively active back-to-school season and the burgeoning financial crisis, which captured headlines but did not immediately affect the PC market's performance. Read More >
• » October 2008 Industry Trends

  • › Blu-ray sales grow 800% in next 4 years

    • A Dallas-based research firm called Parks Associates just announced that they believe Blu-ray player sales will grow 800% in the next four years. Parks also believes that Blu-ray player sales will hit five million this year.

      Last year the format sold a total of 800.000 players, but after HD DVD's exit Parks forecasts that the format will reach a total of five million by the end of 2008. Parks didn't include PlayStation 3 sales.

      At Video Business they reminded us that the NPD Group predicted an increase too. NPD forecasted that standalone Blu-ray player sales will triple in 2008 and double again in 2009. Read More >

  • › Worldwide PC market grew 15 percent in Q3 2008 says Gartner

    • Worldwide PC shipments reached 80.6 million units in the third quarter of 2008, a 15 percent increase from the third quarter last year, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.

      "The mini-notebook segment experienced strong growth in the global PC, led by robust growth in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region," said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner's Client Computing Markets group. "In the North America market, the economic crunch created more interest in the sub $500 segment. Because the mini-notebook is still a new segment, it is too early to determine if the emerging segment created new market opportunities, or if it cannibalized lower priced systems." Read More >

  • › DVD Forum Approves DVD-Download DL Specifications

    • The 43rd steering committee meeting of the DVD Forum approved among other the specifications for the dual layer DVD-Download discs. The participating members of the 43rd steering committee meeting of the DVD Forum held in Paris, France on Sep. 17 approved both the file system and physical specifications for the single and dual layer DVD-Download media. The DVD-Download format features the CSS (Content Scramble System) copyright-protection software that will allow stores to burn movies on to special DVD discs. Read More >

  • › Blu-ray Disc Sales Power Ahead in US, Strong Q4 Sales Season Anticipated

    • Whilst IFA is drawing attention to Europe, newly released market intelligence indicates that it is North American market which is creating the boiler house for the global acceptance of Blu-ray Disc.

      Fresh data from media industry analyst Futuresource Consulting indicates that in the US Blu-ray Disc sales are expected to exceed 45 million this year, which represents a fourfold increase on 2007.

      A significant driver of this increase is the attitude of retailers who, within the video sector, are increasing their in store space allocations to Bluray. Read More >

  • › Blu-ray's market share has almost doubled since HD DVD's demise

    • Packaged media sales go up and down every week depending on the titles -- as documented by our weekly VideoScan post -- but for some reason, the 13 percent drop in Blu-ray sales last week got a lot of attention. What we can't figure out is why the 30 percent increases during the two weeks before (combined) went unnoticed. It boggles the mind why so many so-called tech evangelists only pick up on the bad weeks, but either way, let's go back and take a look at the facts since HD DVD called it quits about seven months ago. Read More >
• » September 2008 Industry Trends

  • › PC market continues to resist economic pressures with a boost from low cost portable PCs

    • Despite continuing economic concerns in both mature and emerging regions, recent shipment volume and increasing competition in the rapidly growing low end of the Portables market are expected to drive solid growth for the next few years, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. Read More >

  • › Blu-ray Market Update

    • The Hi Def disc markets in both the USA and Europe continue to perform in line with expectations, a recent report says.

      According to a report by U.K.-based research firm Futuresource, consumers will buy close to 45 million Blu-ray discs in the US this year (more than 400% up on last year).

      On big titles, the share of total sales being taken by BD has already hit 5-6% and by Q4 it is possible we'll see a 10% or even 12% share for some of the really big hitters, the report claims. Read More >

  • › Qflix: Legally Download, Burn and Duplicate Copyrighted Content

    • Qflix is a technology that makes it easy and legal-to download, burn and duplicate copyrighted movies and television content onto DVDs. Qflix is also a great revenue enhancer for manufacturers and distributors who incorporate Qflix-enabled drives, services, media and software into their products. Read More >