June 27th, 2009
Research firm challenges supposed popularity of HD-DVD format
The recent survey by Harris Interactive, which suggested that HD-DVD continues to be roughly as popular as Blu-ray, has met with some controversy over its methodology. In fact, I received a lengthy e-mail from Adams Media Research’s press representative strongly refuting the Harris study’s findings.
At dispute is that Harris interviewed a random selection of consumers rather than relying on actual sales figures, which Adams says favors Blu-ray by a wide margin. For instance, the 2008 sales data noted that 2.7 percent of U.S. homes with TVs had Blu-ray standalone players, along with 5.6 percent owning PlayStation 3s. In comparison, only 0.3 percent of households owned a HD-DVD set-top player. That’s a huge discrepancy, especially odd since how likely is it to find that large a random oversampling of people with HD-DVD drives?
In any event, Adams’ research concludes that Blu-ray adaptation is ahead of standard DVD technology at the same point in each product’s lifespan. Still, I’m not convinced Blu-ray has reached “critical mass,” as Adams claims, or that PlayStation 3 market penetration will reach 10 percent of U.S. TV households by year’s end. Nonetheless, the best way for Blu-ray to put the ghost of its format wars with HD-DVD in the past is to lower prices on players and Blu-ray discs and sell much, much more of them.
Sean Portnoy spent several years as an editor at Computer Shopper magazine, most recently serving as online executive editor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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