To compare pricing to DVD's release, I looked at a few big box stores on archive.com that had ecommerce websites or at least listed their products and pricing back in late 90's. DVD players started shipping in March 1997. Almost two years later in november/december during the christmas shopping season of 1998, DVD players started retailed at $249 - $799 depending on model. I used Christmas 1998 as a pricing target because it allows a release timeframe of rougly 20 months, which is the same span of time from the release of Blu-ray players in June of 2006 to now, February 2008.
After collecting the DVD pricing, I used a website that would convert those 1998 dollars into 2008 dollars adjusted for inflation and came out with: $249 in 1998 = $320.55 in 2007
note: You probably noticed that DVD's 20-month release range ends during the Holiday season, and are thinking that prices would have been lower than normal. To make the comparison a fair one, I looked up prices right before the holiday season, and they appeared to be roughly the same.
I then checked Amazon.com to see current pricing on cheaper Blu-ray players: Sharp Aquos BDHP20U = $348.00 Samsung BD-P1400 = $356 Sony BDP-S300 = $376 Sony PlayStation 3 = $399.95
Overall, I am surprised that Blu-ray pricing seems to be tracking quite well with DVD's release. I didn't know what to expect, I just assumed that since the introduction of the HD formats has been so much different from new format releases in the past that the retail pricing over time data might be wildly different. Although the prices are not as drastically low as HD-DVD, it's helpful to remember that HD-DVD players were being heavily subsidized by Toshiba as part of their efforts to win the format war, and that 3rd party consumer elecronics manufacturers are unable to match those retail price points in the near term. That said, Blu-ray hardware does use more expensive system components, although in my opinion the resulting increases in technical specifications more than make up for the difference.
I believe the format war had two primary effects on pricing. Number one, it drove down prices due to competition between the two formats. But, conversely, it also limited consumer adoption even among early adopters. Therefore, it had an effect of maintaining higher prices because of the lack of economies of scale that could have been seen with a one-format marketplace. I believe that now that the format war is finally over, the expected increase in consumer adoption of Blu-ray will act as a catalyst for major competition between the plethora of manufacturers that have already jumped in to the game. I would speculate that by the holiday season this year (08), we will see Blu-ray profile 2.0 players at Walmart for $220-$250.
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To compare pricing to DVD's release, I looked at a few big box stores on archive.com that had ecommerce websites or at least listed their products and pricing back in late 90's. DVD players started shipping in March 1997. Almost two years later in november/december during the christmas shopping season of 1998, DVD players started retailed at $249 - $799 depending on model. I used Christmas 1998 as a pricing target because it allows a release timeframe of rougly 20 months, which is the same span of time from the release of Blu-ray players in June of 2006 to now, February 2008.
After collecting the DVD pricing, I used a website that would convert those 1998 dollars into 2008 dollars adjusted for inflation and came out with:
$249 in 1998 = $320.55 in 2007
note: You probably noticed that DVD's 20-month release range ends during the Holiday season, and are thinking that prices would have been lower than normal. To make the comparison a fair one, I looked up prices right before the holiday season, and they appeared to be roughly the same.
I then checked Amazon.com to see current pricing on cheaper Blu-ray players:
Sharp Aquos BDHP20U = $348.00
Samsung BD-P1400 = $356
Sony BDP-S300 = $376
Sony PlayStation 3 = $399.95
Overall, I am surprised that Blu-ray pricing seems to be tracking quite well with DVD's release. I didn't know what to expect, I just
assumed that since the introduction of the HD formats has been so much different from new format releases in the past that the retail pricing over time data might be wildly different. Although the prices are not as drastically low as HD-DVD, it's helpful to remember that HD-DVD players were being heavily subsidized by Toshiba as part of their efforts to win the format war, and that 3rd party consumer elecronics manufacturers are unable to match those retail price points in the near term. That said, Blu-ray hardware does use more expensive system components, although in my opinion the resulting increases in technical specifications more than make up for the difference.
I believe the format war had two primary effects on pricing. Number one, it drove down prices due to competition between the two formats. But, conversely, it also limited consumer adoption even among early adopters. Therefore, it had an effect of maintaining higher prices because of the lack of economies of scale that could have been seen with a one-format marketplace. I believe that now that the format war is finally over, the expected increase in consumer adoption of Blu-ray will act as a catalyst for major competition between the plethora of manufacturers that have already jumped in to the game. I would speculate that by the holiday season this year (08), we will see Blu-ray profile 2.0 players at Walmart for $220-$250.