Blu-Ray/HD DVD gap closes

The sales of Blu-Ray discs are finally beginning to approach their HD DVD counterparts, says Nielsen VideoScan, an division of the famous TV ratings company. By the end of the first week of January, HD DVD sales were 47.14 percent of Blu-Ray's; by the end of the second week, that ratio was 38.36 percent. The gap had narrowed to a mere 7.6 percent as of January 14th. If this growth continues, Blu-Ray should soon overtake HD DVD, despite the latter's headstart -- the first HD DVD player having launched in April of last year, and the first Blu-Ray player in the fall.

The exact reason for Blu-Ray growth is unknown, but it is suspected that the launch of Sony's Playstation 3 game console may be strongly involved. While users can buy an HD DVD drive for Microsoft's Xbox 360, the product is an external add-on that lacks HDMI input. Conversely, the PS3 comes with a Blu-Ray and HDMI built-in, but is actually cheaper than many stand-alone Blu-Ray or HD DVD players. Figures from HD DVD backers reveal that they had shipped 175,000 players to the US by January 5th; Sony, meanwhile, claims to shipped over a million PS3s by the same date. [Via The Register]

By Electronista Staff