Blu-ray has several hurdles must jump in 2009

Sony has had anything but smooth sailing since its Blu-ray format handily dispatched Toshiba’s competing HD DVD format prior to CES last year.  Sales of both standalone Blu-ray players and movies have been rather lackluster, and prices have only started to drop enough to help adoption rates.

To learn more about the challenges Blu-ray faces in the coming years, CDFreaks recently spoke with James McQuivey, Forrester Research Vice Principal and Principal Analyst.

There have been a couple of different stumbling blocks that must be remedied in the future.

"The price is a big issue," McQuivey told CDFreaks.  "When you can get a DVD upconverter for $50 at Wal-Mart, it’s hard to justify even $200 for a Blu-ray player, especially when you then have to invest in more expensive Blu-ray.  Beyond that, you have the fact that Blu-ray players are extremely slow to start.  They almost boot as slowly as a (Microsoft) Windows computer!  Most people think their Blu-ray player is broken is because it doesn’t do anything for a fulll minute after you turn it on."

There was previous concern that despite Blu-ray players getting the ability to stream content, that people would purchase Blu-ray players but not buy new movies.  McQuivey is a bit more optimistic, stating, "Anything that helps Blu-ray players eventually helps Blu-ray disc sales.  If streaming Netflix to a Bllu-ray player gets you to turn on the device once in a while, it will eventually lead you to remember that you spend hundreds of dollars on a device and that will encourage you to rent or by discs for it."

For consumers sitting on the fence waiting to see how Blu-ray develops, there are several different reasons why Blu-ray is an appealing technology, including the higher resolution format and easy menu system. 

Blu-ray in 2009 faces several difficulties that could prove to be difficult to overcome for manufacturers.

"Blu-ray is facing a recession as well as the fact that there are much more convenient ways to get movies, including traditional DVD delivery systems like Netflix, but increasingly, sites like Hulu are offering classic movies for free over the  Web.  Hard to beat free."

Aside from competing ways to watch movies and other content, the disappointing sales of the Sony PlayStation 3 also doesn’t help, according to McQuivey.  "Especially given the disappointing sales of the PS3 — one of the best Blu-ray players out there given that it’s also a gaming system — it’s unclear whether Blu-ray will replace DVDs as the dominant movie medium in the next few years."

As the estimated shelf life of the Blu-ray format is relatively short, it’ll be interesting to see how Sony handles these problems in the future.