Consumers Not Planning a Blu-Ray Christmas

While certain segments of the consumer electronics market will likely fare well during the upcoming holiday shopping season despite the tumbling economy, Blu-ray high-definition DVD players are not expected to fly off the shelves.

Consumers plan to dip into their pocketbooks to pick up items such as video game software, digital cameras and HDTVs, but Blu-ray players are attracting much less attention, according to a recent survey by ABI Research.

Only 8 percent of the survey's 1,600 respondents said they plan to purchase a Blu-ray player during the holiday season. That's considerably lower than the 26 percent that plan video game purchases, the item that tops consumers' shopping lists. Digital cameras ranked second on the list of planned consumer electronics holiday purchases with 20 percent, while HDTVs and computer software tied for third, both at 18 percent.

Blu-ray won a much-heralded victory in the format war against rival HD DVD earlier this year, but the expected rush toward high-def players has yet to materialize, even though pricing on some models has dipped below $200. Some retailers are reportedly expected to offer Blu-ray players for as low as $125 on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally marks the beginning of the holiday spending season.

"We believe this disconnect indicates not only a tough economic environment, but underscores the fact that many consumers simply don't want to upgrade to a high-def optical disk format at this time," said Michael Wolf, research director for the digital home sector at ABI Research, in a report on the study.

Overall, the CE market is expected to feel the impact of the economy as consumers spend more cautiously, Wolf said. Nearly 47 percent of respondents said they plan to cut back on spending this holiday season. Still, it's not all bad news: nearly 41 percent said their holiday spending will hold steady, while nearly 13 percent said they plan to increase spending, according to ABI Research.

Wolf said it was surprising that HDTVs ranked so highly on consumers' shopping lists since they are still "relatively big-ticket items." One reason might be the transition to digital TV broadcasting coming in February. Plus, overall pricing for the segment has dropped significantly: Black Friday pricing for 1080p, 42-inch models from vendors such as Panasonic and Samsung will hit $799 this year, compared to $2,000 for comparable sets two years ago, Wolf said.