New figures from market research firm NPD tracking sales of high-definition video disc players in 2007 show what might turn into a major shakeup in the high-def format war. According to NPD’s sales figures, standalone Blu-ray players outsold standalone HD DVD players in the United States during December 2007 by about a 3:2 margin, despite the fact that holiday promotions put the price of many HD DVD players hundreds of dollars below their Blu-ray counterparts. During the first half of January, that ratio has shifted to about 7:3 in favor of Blu-ray, with the most recent week of sales data—collected after Warner Brothers’ pre-CES announcement it would stop releasing HD DVD titles this year—showing a 9:1 ratio in favor of Blu-ray.
Although the data only reflects one week of sales, the trend certainly isn’t promising for backers of HD DVD technology, including heavyweights like Microsoft, movie studios Universal and Paramount, and (of course) Toshiba. And sales of high-def players and titles are still tiny compared to sales of traditional DVDs.
The figures echo figures from Neilsen’s VideoScan service (as reported in Home Media Magazine) showing Blu-ray titles outselling HD DVD titles by a margin of about 3:1 during January 2008, with the week since Warner’s Blu-ray announcement showing a nearly 6:1 tilt in favor of Blu-ray.
