Shocker: Consumers reluctant to buy standalone Blu-ray players

When the PS3 offers so much more and only costs $400, can you blame them?

No surprises here, but according to a study by ABI Research, consumers are reluctant to buy standalone Blu-ray players. More than half the people surveyed have no plans to buy a standalone Blu-ray player in the near future, and 23 percent are considering it, but not until 2009. Those numbers seem consistent with our experience, as we personally haven't heard much interest in Blu-ray outside of dedicated home theater enthusiasts.

Even though standalones are struggling, ABI says that hasn't stopped Blu-ray from marching forward, thanks to strong sales of the Sony PlayStation 3. And despite some early doubts that PS3 owners wouldn't watch Blu-ray movies, ABI says the company, "didn't see any significant evidence" of that behavior in the survey. That's consistent with an earlier report from the Entertainment Merchants Association, which claimed that 87 percent of PS3 owners do watch Blu-ray movies.

If you've been following CNET's Blu-ray coverage, it shouldn't be shocking that standalones are struggling. The PS3 holds the top spot on our best Blu-ray players list, and every time we review a new Blu-ray player we use the PS3 as our reference. It's the best Blu-ray player we've tested so far, plus you get a high-def gaming console and a well-featured media streamer for $400. Yes, there are a few reasons why you may not want to use a PS3 as your Blu-ray player, but for the vast majority of people the PS3 is just a better value. And with standalone players at current price levels, it seems like consumers agree with us.

Source: ABI Research via Video Business

[zgreenwell]

Since there isn't much for competition in the way of stand alone players I think a lot of people are buying the PS3 to watch Blu-Ray movies exclusively.

[pr1962]

At the current prices of both Blu-ray players and movies I cannot see and increase by consumers into buying Blu-ray , i will continue to watch standard Dvd 's which are up-converted by my player to 1080i , my son plays X-box 360 so no need for the play station either , when and if the cost come down to below $200.00 per player and below $20.00 per movie there may be more of us willing to join the blu-ray crowd , but until them it is very doubtful that the main stream consumer will spend that much money , also Dish just release 1080p video on demand , so in the very near future it think other technologies will emerge that will make Blu-ray go BLUE.