Next-Gen DVDs to Boom Despite Format War?

July 12, 2006 By Geoff Duncan

A report from the Santa Clara Consulting Group claims next-generation DVDs market will pull in $2 billion in 2006 and $28 billion by 2010, format war or no.

A new report entitled Blu-ray and HD DVD Disc Technologies: Pursuit of a New Standard from the Santa Clara Consulting Group (don’t bother with the Web site unless you need a laugh) makes some pretty bold predictions about the direction of the broad “blue laser” next generation DVD market. Despite the looming format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, the anticipated sales revenue of next-generation DVD players, game consoles, PC drives, and related media (like games and movies) will exceed $2 billion during 2006, and account for some $28 billion by 2010.

(Yep: $2 billion. This year. 2006.)

“Currently the market seems to be preoccupied with the format battlebetween Blu-ray and HD DVD technologies; what is overlooked is the factthat a market is developing and the opportunity is huge,” observes DavidBunzel, Managing Director of SCCG.

According to SCCG, Sony’s forthcoming PlayStation 3 gaming console

Showing 2 comments

Ian Bell and Dan Gaul at 3:07pm 12th July 2006 I hear ya. I cannot personally wait to get my hands on a next-gen DVD player too.
Karl Viklund at 2:10pm 12th July 2006 Some say, next gen formats will flopp. I think not. Even if the adoption may be slow in the begining because of the price you will eventually buy into this. It's the future. It's like with Windows Vista. It will be the system in the next computer you buy whether you need/want it or not. The price for these new players may seem a little bit high, but remember, when CD-Burners came the price was about 500$ or even more. I waited until the price came down to about 250$ before I bought my first CD-burner.

Right now, the price is 500$ for a HD-DVD player and about 1000$ for a Blu-Ray player. Blu-Ray is more expensive at the moment but I still think Blu-Ray got the advantage here. Most people don't have the big flat displays you need to realy enjoy movies in 1080p and it will take a long time before your grandmother buys a new LCD-TV so for the next gen formats to become mainstream will take a long time. So what's left? Yes, Data storage. Since HDDs are becoming more and more cheaper for every month the next gen formats really needs something extra to avoid a flopp. Blu-Rays 25/50GB against HD-DVDs 15/30 will make a huge difference here.

Personaly, I can't wait for the Blu-Ray burners to come down in price.