Blu-ray approaching "critical mass"

IFA press conference looks to growth

28 August 2008 17:22 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

"In Europe, Blu-ray disc is fast approaching a crtical mass of users which will provide the platform needed to propel the format into the consumer mainstream markets. The fourth quarter of this this year will see rapid growth in sales of every BD category from CE hardware to PC systems, movies, music and computer games", said Frank Simonis, the European promotions committee chairman for the Blu-ray group that now boasts 190 plus members, at IFA.

Simonis provided some skant figures to back up the claims of growth stating that Europe had reached the five million Blu-ray movies sold milestone while the US was on 10 million.

Addressing the criticism levelled against the format for being an unnecessary step between DVD and download, Simonis said that although some solutions were available for HD download, it was still too early for consumers to adopt mass market and that Blu-ray "is easier".

As well as more content being offered by Hollywood studios with now Paramount and Universal committed to producing Blu-ray films, Simonis said that there was more hardware on the market too, pointing out that many of the companies at IFA had more than one Blu-ray solution as opposed to the show this time last year when companies generally only offered a single BD product.