By James Wells in Berlin
BERLIN: A raft of statistics showing the rapid growth of Blu-ray Disc in the European market were revealed this afternoon at the group’s press conference at IFA 2009 in Berlin.
– There are now over 1500 Blu-ray titles released in the European market
– Over 31 million units of Blu-ray software are expected to be sold in 2009 which is 244% higher than the number of units sold in 2008
– Half of these sales, over 15 million units will be sold in the last quarter of the year or 166,000 each day over this period
– There are over 150 Blu-ray Disc players available in the European market
– There is currently a 10 per cent or 1 in 10 penetration of Blu-ray Disc players in the Europe. It is expected that this penetration will increase to 20 per cent or 1 in 5 households by 2011
– By the third year of introduction, Blu-ray is substantially ahead of DVD in terms of consumer adoption
– 62 per cent of Blu-ray Disc releases are on 50GB discs
– Over 75 per cent of all Blu-ray players are BD Live compatible
– Blu-ray Disc players are now below 160 Euros and this is likely to drop below the crucial 100 Euro mark by Christmas. Blu-ray Discs are already selling for 10 Euros
While the PS3 has been important in the format’s establishment, by 2012 movie enthusiasts will dominate the growth of the format and these consumers purchase more movie-based software than gaming enthusiasts.