Consumer electronics retailers Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) are now stocking only Blu-ray disc players in the wake of the fall of competitive format HD DVD. So far, Blu-ray disc players still are not that competitively priced compared to standard DVD players, which the industry may have a problem with if consumers continue to decide that standard DVD is "good enough" to use with that new flat-screen TV.But at least the software catalog within the Blu-ray camp is getting some support. In addition to recent sales that placed some hit movies in the same price category as standard DVD players, the two retailers are not forgetting the huge camp of Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3 owners, all of whom have a full Blu-ray disc player built into their gaming machines. This Blu-ray "owner's club" of sorts is a captive market at this time, and the two largest consumer electronics retailers are taking advantage of it. For example, a "buy 2, get 1 free" special is in effect this week at Circuit City stores, while Best Buy is offering a free $10 gift card with the purchase of two Blu-ray titles.
Not that both retailers have a lot of work to do -- they are both promoting Blu-ray just fine -- but hardware prices and eventually movie title prices will need to reach critical mass from the manufacturers and disc distributors before consumers go nuts on the format like they did with DVD a decade or so ago. It's nice to have a single, next-generation optical disc format to make the choice for the consumer dead simple. But, those consumers want the lower price also -- and Blu-Ray still isn't there yet. With gas hovering at record levels, would you buy one right now?
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