sony 50% BD market share

Sony will increase the amount of products with Blu-ray Disc functionality in an effort to up global market share of the HD technology to 50% in 2008. To help achieve this, Sony will focus on promoting Blu-ray in its IT offerings such as personal computers and laptops, said Sony president and Electronics CEO Ryoji Chubachi at a press event in Taipei last Thursday. Blu-ray's current movie disc market share is 20%, with the remaining 80% still belonging to traditional DVD.

Sony will also unveil more home theater oriented electronics that integrate Blu-ray, with Chubachi noting a combination HD LCD TV with a built-in Blu-ray recorder will soon hit the market. No details were given as to the nature of the future set or its release date apart from the inclusion of the drive.

The Japanese electronics giant has relied heavily on its PlayStation 3 gaming system to promote its high-definition format, and the game console remains the only one with HD disc playback capability. The console is upgradeable via downloadable software updates that aim to enhance its usefulness as a Blu-ray device. This, along with new movie titles released by Hollywood, will continue to push sales of the game console, Chubachi noted.

With the demise of HD DVD earlier this year, only traditional DVDs remain as the physical movie format competitor to Blu-ray.

By Electronista Staff