Blu-ray- penetration figures predicted-



Now that the format war is done, according to a report by the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices Services, Blu-ray hardware penetration will rise to nearly 30 million homes worldwide this year-.

The calculation- is that overall 18.8 million Blu-ray units will be sold in 2008 which breaks down into four million stand-alone set-tops, 13 million PlayStation 3 consoles and 2 million PC-based Blu-ray- drives-.

“HD- DVD’s- withdrawal leaves the way open for Blu-ray to become a major revenue earner for technology vendors and content owners alike”, said David- Mercer, principal analyst at Strategy-Analytics-.

“The 265 million homes that will own an HDTV by 2012, and Hollywood’s need for a new growth engine, represent huge incentives for the industry to coordinate marketing activities and demonstrate unified support for the successor to DVD.”