Even though sales numbers of the Sony PlayStation 3 currently trail behind the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony is seeing good sales from customers who want the ability to play Blu-ray discs without being forced to purchase a standalone player.
Research done by ABI Research indicates that there is little interest for standalone Blu-ray players, and PS3 sales are keeping the technology afloat at the moment. The research firm discovered half the people interviewed said they have no plans to purchase a standalone Blu-ray player this year, with only 23 percent planning to buy one in 2009.
An impressive 87 percent of current PS3 owners use their consoles to watch Blu-ray movies.
Blu-ray is still very popular among home theater enthusiasts, but the average U.S. consumer still isn't ready for the technology yet. Besides the need to purchase a high-definition television, which is happening at higher numbers as of late, the cost of standalone Blu-ray players remains too high for the average consumer.
“While you might think gamers purchase fewer movie discs than others, we didn’t see any significant evidence of that in our results,” said Steve Wilson, ABI principal analyst. “PS3 console shipments will go a long way to help bring down manufacturing costs and drive down Blu-Ray player prices.”
Several technology journalists and bloggers have claimed the PS3 is the best Blu-ray player under $600, even though it also obviously doubles as a game console. This is different than when DVDs began to phase out VHS because the quality difference between the two formats was more significant than the quality difference between DVD and Blu-ray.
