Apple has been extremely reluctant to adopt Blu-ray, but a Futuresource Consulting analyst believes now may be the best time for Apple to finally embrace Blu-ray technology.
"Our quarterly BD hardware tracker shows European BD player sales, excluding PS3, are running at close to 300 percent up on the equivalent period last year," according to Jim Bottoms, Futuresource Consulting Company Director. "Retail prices are declining fast and we expect to see players at or below 100 euros by the Christmas selling season."
There are still quite a few people who believe Apple doesn't need Blu-ray -- but if enough consumers demand the technology, then it only makes sense Apple will adopt the technology at some point.
Bottoms believes around 50 percent of all U.S. sales and 35 percent of western European sales will be Blu-ray. I believe the overall popularity of Blu-ray will continue to grow as the price of stnadalone Blu-ray players and movies decline further, but I don't think the HD format will grow that quickly in less than three years.
If Blu-ray really is expected to explode in popularity like that in a few years, offering at least several models with Blu-ray would make sense from a business standpoint.
There was a previous rumor that iTunes 9 would encorporate Blu-ray support, with the newest generation of iMacs also using Blu-ray technology.
