14 DAY TRIAL // While IT and entertainment players are fueling the hype surrounding 3D, and it looks like consumers really have been buying Blu-ray 3D disks even despite the fairly low number of films available in that format.
Blu-ray disks are, for all intents and purposes, the most capacious of optical media storage solutions to date, and this is even disregarding BDXL disks.
Analyst firm his took it upon itself to find out just how well the Blu-ray 3D standard has been holding up over the past twelve months.
After some snooping around, it was found that 1.75 million BD3D units were sold at retail, 1.59 million of which were feature films sold in the US.
Meanwhile, 1.4 million disks were sold through hardware bundling deals during the same period (June 22, 2010 to June 21, 2011).
In other words, the number of Blu-ray 3D disks that found their way to consumer hands turned out to be 3.5 million.
This figure is quite an achievement, considering the fact that the number of actual film titles available on this sort of disk is fairly small, all things considered.
“Consumers are finding that 3D is one of the most fun concepts in home entertainment since color television, providing true three-dimensional pictures right in their living room,” said Jan Saxton, senior analyst, film entertainment, for IHS.
“Once they have 3D in the home, they love it and are hungry for content, snapping up BD3D movies as soon as they become available. Sales reached this high level despite the fact that the number of BD3D titles on the market was relatively small compared to non-3D Blu-ray."
This year, 3D TVs are expected to account for 20% of the total and, with glasses-free 3D monitors showing up, one can be certain that Blu-ray 3D films will have an extra incentive to multiply.