Scottsdale, Ariz. — North American household penetration of dedicated Blu-ray movie players will more than double to 18 percent of TV-owning households by the end of 2010 from a little more than 8 percent in 2009, ABI Research forecasts.
Worldwide, Blu-ray player shipments will more than double from 2009 to 43.2 million in 2010, and sales will jump to more than 62.5 million in 2011, the research company said.
The statistics exclude Blu-ray drives for PCs and Blu-ray-playing PlayStation game consoles.
The growth underscores a wider trend in the CE industry in which “larger, fixed-location devices such as Blu-ray players nd flat-panel TVs are enjoying rapid adoption relative to many classes of small, portable devices,” claimed analyst Mike Inouye. He pointed out that sales of portable gaming devices are “leveling out,” shipments of portable audio players are declining, digital picture frames “are showing only mild growth,” and shipments of compact digital cameras are declining in North America and Japan, “though they continue modest growth elsewhere.”
Inouye attributed the shift to declining Blu-ray and flat-panel TV prices and possibility to “recent exciting innovations in TV technologies,” including larger, flatter TVs, Internet connectivity, and 3D.
“Aside from the economic/job environment, it could be that dedicated portable device markets are simply maturing, or it could be due to the greater competition they face from smartphones and other multi-function portable devices,” he noted.
