Recent NPD Group sales data would suggest that the Warner Bros.
Blu-ray Disc announcement just before CES 2008 had an immediate and
dramatic impact on the sales of high-definition movie players, but
new information shows that Blu-ray Disc may not be tipping the scales
as heavily as originally thought.
Last week, Digital Bits published NPD numbers showing that
93
percent of new high-definition hardware sold was for Blu-ray
Disc. According to BetaNews,
however, NPD is not supporting those figures, saying that they were
not an official release from the firm and not a long-term indicator
of the industry.
While HD DVD did suffer some lost momentum due to the loss of
Warner’s support, Blu-ray Disc’s overwhelming command in the new
hardware split was potentially due to free player deals rather than
new sales.
Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD,
explained that Blu-ray Disc players part of bundle deals with sales
of new HDTVs were included in the sales figures.
Sony, Panasonic and Sharp all offered free or heavily discounted
Blu-ray Disc players with purchase of new televisions, driving up the
hardware numbers. Samsung, on the other hand, did not offer any such
Blu-ray Disc hardware bundle promotion, and thus sales of Samsung
players were almost non-existent.
NPD receives its sales data from multiple retail point-of-sale
systems in the U.S., but does not include online sales.