A large bulk of people who buy a Sony PS3 are not interested in using the Blu ray player and have never tried to watch a Blu ray movie, claims a new research study. This is despite Sony Computer Entertainment bragging about the benefits of their player inside the PS3 console.
A large bulk of people who buy a Sony PS3 are not interested in using the Blu ray player and have never tried to watch a Blu ray movie, claims a new research study. This is despite Sony Computer Entertainment bragging about the benefits of their player.
According to an August study by NPD Group, 34% of PS3 owners had never tried to watch Blu-ray movies on their machine. Two-thirds of PS3 owners had watched Blu-ray movies, however, which is a higher percentage of owners who watched DVDs on the PlayStation 2 at a similar point in its lifecycle, according to NPD.
“It’s at a fairly high level, where it took years for PS2 owners to use [that console] for DVD,” NPD analyst Russ Crupnick he said. “Most PS3 people think of it as a gaming device, but there is a reasonable level of awareness and intended use for Blu-ray.”
When NPD asked PS3 owners in August why they purchased the console, 58% said it was mostly to play games; 34% said it was for enjoying games and Blu-ray movies equally; and 8% said mostly for Blu-ray movies. The responses were consistent with similar NPD research a year earlier.
The researchers claim that the new PS3 is now working its way into the households of casual gamers. They might be less enthusiastic about new technology than earlier buyers, however, and NPD believes these new buyers might use the machine even less as a Blu-ray movie player.
PS3 owners who have had their machines for some time tend to buy more Blu-ray movies than DVDs, according to NPD, while newer owners buy more DVDs than Blu-rays.
“Newer owners are somewhat more oriented to DVD than Blu-ray,” Crupnick said. “The later you get into an adoption cycle, the more you’re not getting the super aficionado. These are people who are tougher to convince about the benefits of Blu-ray and who are sensitive to price.”
Sony is hoping to drive momentum for the PS3 by launching a higher capacity 250GB model for $599 on Nov. 3. This is $200 dearer than the same model in the USA.
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