TechRadar spoke recently with Philips' Technology Programme Manager, Chris Buma, and he revealed that more and more people are buying dedicated Blu-ray players, instead of relying on the PS3 for BD playback.
While he praised the PlayStation for kick-starting Blu-ray, he did seem to think that it was no longer the case that consumers were buying the PS3 just for movie watching.
"The PlayStation 3 has certainly played an important role in Blu-ray," explained Buma. "In the beginning the overwhelming number of players out there meant Blu-ray technology was in a lot of homes, but things are changing now and people are using the console more for its original use – gaming, and not so much for movies."
Price difference
He continued: "This has something to do with price difference. At the beginning, the PS3 was the cheapest Blu-ray player out there but this isn't the case anymore.
"The PS3's domination as a Blu-ray player is certainly going down and the market place for dedicated players is increasing."
When we asked if the recession could blight Blu-ray's hope for dominance in the home-entertainment market, Buma, who is also a spokesperson for the BDA, was quick to answer: "Blu-ray can survive the recession. Absolutely. What you see is that prices of products are going down, so there is no reason for concern here.
"The market may slow down and figures maybe less, but [the format] is certainly doing what we expected."
He did, however, point out that the demise of Pioneer's Kuro brand illustrated just how severe the economic situation is: "It's a sad thing for the industry, Kuro disappearing. It just shows how hard things are at the moment."
