According to Andy Parsons, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, “There’s not enough market [volume] to lower the price”, adding that companies have to build “awareness and demand for the technology” before prices can drop. And notes Parsons, DVD sales have flattened with consumers on average still spending over 40 per cent of their movie budget on the purchase of DVDs. So now that HD-DVD is out of the way, and digital downloads barely rating as a contender, the only barrier between Blu-ray and its potential market saturation seems to be price. At present, in most Australian music and home entertainment stores, a new release DVD sells between $20 or $30, but Blu-ray Discs are still priced at $40 or above. And as DVD players get cheaper by the minute, with many now retailing below the $100 mark, Blu-ray player prices are still in the $400 and $800 range. These price discrepancies seem to be the main reason why switching from DVDs to Blu-Ray is still a hard ask for many consumers. So while Blu-ray may have won its battle with HD-DVD, it certainly has not yet won the consumer war, and it looks like format is finding fighting a modern war against all the options consumers have these days is not that easy.
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