Posted on Saturday, November 15 2008 @ 7:03 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
ABI Research
predicts prices of Blu-ray players may drop to the $150-200 price range for the holiday season:
The need for healthy holiday sales in a bear market, competitive pressure from movie download services, and media speculation about the future success of the Blu-ray format itself has resulted in falling Blu-ray Disc (BD) player prices across a range of current and older models, according to ABI Research.
Tier 2 players and older models (6-9 months) are now widely available under US$200. Amazon is offering a Samsung model bundled with four discs for that price. Holiday season prices may be in the US$150-200 range. All of this runs counter to many of the industry's original market forecasts and expectations.
"Blu-ray vendors and dealers are starting to realize that for Blu-ray to become the next DVD, they need to lower player prices in order to generate interest and build volumes," commented ABI Research principal analyst Steve Wilson.
