Report: Blu-Ray will break through this year

A recently released NPD analysis indicates that Blu-ray will finally hit the “big time” in the mainstream in 2010, as prices will continue to drop on new discs, with prices coming close to current new DVD levels by 2010-2011.

The company surveyed users of Blu-ray components in late February 2008 and in August 2009, and it shows that BR is out of the “new shiny early adopters” phase, but people are stopped by the higher prices of the players/discs, which is understandable.

In 2008 for example, over 64% of users were the “adopters on the edge”, which only account for 20 percent of the entire market. By August 2009, that same number had been reduced to 38%, with the market now being middle-aged families with money that waited until prices got more reasonable.

There are those who might never switch, even those who love HDTV. According to the report, neutral on BR votes were at 17% while people that just plain hate Blu-ray and don’t plan to ever adopt it are at 7%, which is about average for any technology.