One question that remains unanswerable is whether Blu-ray launched too early or too late. After numerous delays, and over two months after its rival, the first Blu-ray movies hit store shelves on June 20th, 2006. Unfortunately, the launch was without the much touted hardware and software support that was to be Blu-ray's main strength in the format war.
The earliest of adopters suffered through titles that presented a sub-par experience and an expensive player that had many first generation quirks. Sales data reflected overall consumer confidence with numbers strongly favoring HD DVD; the grass truly seemed greener on the other side.
On November 17th, 2006, the
PlayStation 3 was launched in North America.
Overnight, Blu-ray took a substantial lead in number of high definition players on the market, and software sales soon caught up as well. After being significantly lower in weekly movie sales since the format launched, Blu-ray became the leader by the end of December and never looked back. By February, Blu-ray had successfully taken the market and has grown to a nearly 60% market share while maintaining a 2:1 software sales advantage.
March saw the release of the most popular Blu-ray title to date, Casino Royale, which reached the 100,000 units shipped mark just two weeks after its release. Since then, blockbuster movies have been selling well on Blu-ray, like the recently released Pirates of the Caribbean movies which combined managed to sell over 47,000 copies in a single week for the US alone.
Sales in other countries have been encouraging as well. While the US remains the dominant country in high definition movie sales, Japan and Australia strongly favor Blu-ray, and Europe has quickly become obsessed with the PlayStation 3 and its ability to play Blu-ray movies. Sales of Blu-ray movies in these regions continue to grow at a strong pace.
Blu-ray companies have shown a strong willingness to fight for the success of the format, and consumers have responded across the world. Player prices are half what they were last year and movies look and sound better than what you can find in your local theater. Being only half way through the year, and with the holiday season coming up soon, it is clear that 2007 will be the year that consumers go Blu.