US Lessons For OZ retailers, 4K Blu ray Sales Booming + Think Pad Notebooks On Sale At Best Buy

I have just visited several consumer electronic stores in New York where products destine for Australia are already on sale and there are some interesting lessons to be learnt for both retailers and manufacturers.

At Best Buy most consumers who buy a new 4K TV are also buying a 4K Blu ray player from the likes of Samsung.

Some US retailers claim that the attachment rate is higher for new 4K Blu ray players than for new Dolby Atmos soundbars.

Also of interest is the fact that Best Buy is selling Think Pad notebooks right alongside Lenovo Yoga notebooks.

One store manager at the Best Buy, 5th Avenue, store said that “business consumers” were gravitating to the Think Pad brand as it was seen as a business notebook over the new Yoga range from Lenovo.

“If we did not have the Think Pad notebooks we would lose the sale to a specialist dealer” said the Best Buy executive.

In the US Samsung’s new 4K Blu ray player is selling for $399.

Not yet launched in Australia the product has been available in US stores since Feb. 5.

One retailer in the US said “The attachment rate has been unprecedented. The consumer is hungry for uncompressed HDR content.”

Also on sale is the new Panasonic 4K Blu ray player.

The 4K Blu-ray version of “The Martian” “looked better than it did in the movie theatre,” he added.

At the same time that retailers sell a Samsung 4K Blu ray player they are also selling

4K Blu ray discs to go with the players, pricing most discs at $24.99 for disc packages containing a 4K disc and a 1080p disc.

According to Samsung sources sales of their new 4K Blu ray player have exceeded Samsung’s expectations, resulting in the Company now ramping up production so that it can meet demand in six to eight weeks.

Another interesting observation is that retailers claim that they are selling more 4K TV’s of brands who actually have a 4 K Blu ray player than those without a player. The popular 4K TV brands include LG, Sony, Samsung and Panasonic.

Best Buy executives said “Customers have been excited to bring Samsung’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player home to pair with their 4K TVs, giving them the first chance to watch native 4K content from a disc”

About Post Author

David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.