Internet Connectivity Propelling Blu-ray Sales

Sales of Blu-ray players have begun to pick up, and you can thankInternet connectivity and changing TV watching patterns for the shift.

Shipments of the players tripled in 2009, though they still lag farbehind DVD players, mainly because they're far more expensive. But asmore people seek new and different ways to watch their favorite television shows and movies,whether via Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Boxee or other means, the players'network connectivity becomes more attractive and makes the price morescalable, according to a report by In-Stat.

Some key findings of the report:

• Shipments of network-enabledBlu-ray players/recorders will approach 80 million units by 2013.(Still slightly less than DVD players by volume, but quadruple therevenue because of the retail price.)
  
• 18% of US survey respondents with at least some interest in purchasing a Blu-ray player cited cost as a barrier.
• Japan dominates the market for Blu-ray recorders. Europe is the largest revenue market for Blu-ray players.
• The key semiconductor providers supporting the Blu-ray and DVD player/recorder market include Broadcom, NEC, MediaTek, Sunplus and Zoran.

Several brands of Blu-ray player already are able to stream videodirectly from Netflix, eliminating the need for consumers to connect acomputer to their television. Internet connectivity also potentiallywill enable the players to stream video from other sources, such asYouTube, Vimeo and Boxee, the latter of which offers its own TV box tostream its offerings.

So while the content producers (the networks and studios) and thecontent providers (the cable and satellite companies) are living infear of consumers skipping the traditional means of getting theirentertainment, the device manufacturers aren't too concerned.Especially seeing as most manufacturers of DVD players also produceBlu-ray players.

"The consumer electronics makers are really the only ones who don'thave anything to lose if consumers switch," Forrester Researchanalyst James McQuivey told Advertising Age. "Everyone else is conflicted."