Senior Sony Japan executives have dismissed claims that HD DVD is ahead in the Blu-ray Vs HD DVD format war. They also claim that demand for Blu-ray is set to grow 7 fold as new Blu-ray players are launched. However the key driving factor, they say, will be Blu-ray content such as the 30 new titles Sony announced today.
Sony is very confident about Blu-ray adoption around the world. At a launch in Australia senior Sony Japan executives have forecast a 7 fold increase in demand for Blu-ray players driven by the release of new Blu-ray movies and the lowering of player prices.
Akira Shimazu, Senior General Manager of Blu-ray Strategy Group, Sony Corporation said his company is ready to handle the growth in demand for Blu-ray components and that there will be no shortages of components. He also said that currently Sony is manufacturing more than a million Blu-ray Diods and key Blu-ray components a month and "Currently the bulk of these components are going into the PS3. This will change as demand for Blu-ray players grows and the price of players fall."
He added "Right now there is high adoption of HD TV and we are in a position to manufacture Blu-ray movies quickly. This will grow demand for Blu-ray players he said. He also dismissed claims that HD DVD was ahead in the format war.
Other senior executives of Sony also dismissed claims that porn was driving the adoption of HD DVD. Carl Rose the Managing Director of Sony Australia and former marketing director of Sony UK said " A great deal of porn is downloaded from the web not bought as HD DVD content from stores".
ony said that it hopes to see this year's Blu-ray player shipments increase to as much as seven times over 2006 shipments.
Sony is convinced that the number of Blu-ray players hitting the stores in the US alone in 2007 will be around 600,000. If such expectations prove to be true it would mean a huge leap for Sony, considering the fact that the company only shipped 100,000 in 2006.
At the Australian Blu-ray launch Sony announced that over the next month it will roll out more than 30 new Blu-ray titles including, The Big Hit, Gothika and Resident Evil: Apocalypse in June, Ghostrider, Flatliners and The Patriot in July, while August sees box office successes Reign over Me and Perfect Stranger together with Final Fantasy and The Spirits Within among a few.
Sony has also said that it plans to release new movies as Blu-ray exclusives.
writer: David Richards
