April 8, 2008

81% Of Japanese Intend To Purchase A Blu-ray Player

While Blu-ray continues to get walloped by standard DVD in the US, the Japanese seemed to have jumped on the Blu-ray bandwagon the second HD DVD died. An internet survey of nearly 15000 Japanese conducted by MyVoice Communications at the beginning of March revealed that a full 81% of those surveyed intend to buy a Blu-ray disc recorder. Of course, they're not that comfortable just yet, as 69.4% of respondents "have no specific schedule for purchasing it".

A large majority of those surveyed weren't prepared to pay more than 50000 Yen for a new Blu-ray, equating to US$493. Evidently the Japanese are willing to pay more than us across the pond who fret over sub-$400 prices, although they state price is the most important factor in making the final decision to purchase a Blu-ray player. Panasonic and Sony were revealed to be the most likely to gain from Blu-ray's popularity in Japan, being ranked as the two most popular Blu-ray manufacturers.

Via Tech-On