AV zombie

Blu-ray player sales in the US plummeted in February. According to data released by the NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service, dedicated player sales dropped 40 per cent, as a string of special retail promotions and bundling deals came to an end. NPD director Ross Rubin suggests that the format war with HD DVD was not as big a factor in player sales as previously thought, saying: “That stand-alone Blu-ray players haven’t picked up significantly from HD DVD’s loss shows that few consumers were dissuaded primarily by the format war. Consumers continue to see a gap between Blu-ray’s premium video quality and its premium price.”
Standard DVD player sales have also slumped, but the upscaling DVD category is booming, bucking the trend with US sales up 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2008.