[by Nayan Ashra, blu-ray.com]

IHS Screen Digest say Blu-ray hardware, players and recorders, has seen a 93% rise in installed base at the end of Q1 2011 compared to Q1 2010 in the USA, and FutureSource have backed up this increase with a prediction of 50m playback devices in people’s homes by the end of the year. This represents massive growth for Blu-ray hardware which is quickly becoming the dominant optical disc format. 

On the software side both IHS Screen Digest and FutureSource paint a positive picture, with IHS saying that BD sales are up 26.5% in a year on year comparison of Q1 2011 versus Q1 2010. While FutureSource say total disc sales for this year is projected at 120m compared to 85m sold last year, which represents year on year growth of over 40%.

FutureSource also released their 3D installed base predictions and they say that 60% of US households will have a 3D capable TV by 2015 and 75% of households will have 3D Blu-ray players in a similar time frame. This ties in nicely withpreviously released information from IHS which said that BD 3D sales are up 533% so far this year and newly released information that 3DTV adoption is outpacing HDTV adoption by around 50%.

The picture painted is also backed up by the NPD group who previously released their report into optical disc adoption, which said that BD will be around for a long time.

See the original post here: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=6294