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EngadgetHD: Always good for an optimistic Blu-ray outlook, analyst Futuresource this week continued to peg 2012 as the year Blu-ray breaks into the mainstream, while reducing its prediction of discs sold this year in the format from 95 to 75 million.

The expectation is that within the next couple of years hardware could drop to as cheap as $50 (€35) for an “entry-level” Blu-ray player, with dedicated set-top box owners snapping up high definition discs at a much quicker rate than the currently PS3-dominated (6% to 3%) audience.

Check Video Business for the full recap, but just in case you hadn’t heard, rumors of Blu-ray’s impending demise are greatly exaggerated.

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T3: Still need proof as to whether it’s time to dump the DVD player and the accompanying DVD library? Well these latest sales figures should go some way to suggest you start embracing the Blu.

While we are not advocating uprooting your fast-ageing tech and free throwing into the back of a garbage truck, these latest figures from internet firm Futuresource Consulting suggest Blu-ray is well and truly establishing itself in living rooms across the globe.

Well on target to hit the century mark worldwide despite only being two months into the year, these sound like impressive stats. Most of those Blu-ray gorging figures are courtesy of our American neighbours who represent almost 80% of total disc sales.

The UK buying public on a slightly lesser note represent a healthy 40% of the global Blu-ray sales market. These figures cover current year projections, but we reckon we can take this as the closest to gospel as we are going to get in regards to the current format purchasing market. And with so much of the year left, most could well be looking forward to a Blu-ray Christmas, birthday, Father’s Day….

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AVRev.com: Futuresource Consulting, a UK based research firm, has released a report regarding the abandonment of physical media.  The study takes a long-term perspective, and predicts that physical media sales will reach their peak in 2012, and then begin to slide as consumers move towards digital downloads or mobile entertainment. 

By 2012, digital sales will account for about 15% of the market.  From there, it will increase at the expense of Blu-Rays and DVDs. Futuresource claims that appearances are deceptive when it comes to physical, pre-packaged media like Blu-Rays and DVDs. 

Blu-Ray players and discs have been enjoying growing sales in the past few years, but  these sales are occurring at the expense of DVD sales.  In other words, the overall market for physical media is not growing, it’s simply shifting.

Futuresource points to several reasons for the decline in physical media.  One is the cost of the software but the most telling factor is the fact that Blu-Rays are not a significant upgrade in the consumer’s eyes.

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Home Cinema Choice: The consumer electronics industry and Hollywood must agree a delivery system standard for 3D before the technology has a chance of taking off as a consumer product. That’s the view of UK-based market analysts Futuresource.

Bill Foster, Futuresource’s senior technology consultant, also suggests that one of the key reasons Blu-ray won out against rival HD DVD was because studio executives were already looking down the road at releasing data-heavy titles in a 3D format: ‘Certain studios had their reasons for wanting Blu-ray (in the first place), because they were already thinking about 3D. But there has to be some technology standard.’ he says.

The research firm, more controversially, predicts that 3D technology which doesn’t require special glasses will supplant ‘spectacle-based’ 3D within a decade.

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PC World: Sales of Blu-ray players in 2008 aren’t exactly stellar, despite lower prices and the lack of competition from the recently departed HD-DVD format.

But are things looking up for Blu-ray? Recent reports indicate that 2009 may bring better times for Sony’s high-def video format.

According to a report from Futuresource, sales of Blu-ray discs and players in Europe are up significantly this holiday season, and the upswing is expected to continue into the new year.

The report optimistically predicts that European sales of Blu-ray players will more than triple in 2009, reaching 2.5 million units-and that excludes sales of Playstation 3 consoles, which double as Blu-ray players.

Sales of Blu-ray discs are picking up, too. Shoppers worldwide are snapping up the Blu-ray version of Christopher Nolan’s Batman sequel The Dark Knight in huge numbers: More than 1 million copies have sold in the U.S. alone, and 1.7 million globally.

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HD News: According to London-based analysts FutureSource, the predicted demise of the high definition DVD format Blu-ray has been exaggerated.

Two trends have emerged which place the success of Blu-ray in doubt. Firstly, many of us appreciate the quality of Blu-ray but are quite happy to hang on to our collection of DVD’s and Secondly, a growing number of manufacturers have long appreciated the potential for ‘upscaling’ technology as an intermediate solution – a solution which many consumers have adopted.

However, in a new report, FutureSource predicts that 1.8million BD players will ship into the UK and Europe by the close of 2009, a figure that does not include Sony’s PS3 games console which has a built-in Blu-ray drive. They believe that Blu-ray will benefit from the change in consumer spending habits as a result of the recent credit crunch; that they will opt to spend more of their disposable income on home entertainment.

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ElectronicsWeekly.com: Blu-ray DVD markets in both the US and Europe continue to perform strongly now that the industry has a single standard to focus on.

By 2012, between 40% and 50% of consumer expenditure on video discs will be allocated to Blu-ray, according to a report from market analyst Futuresource. Market predicts suggest that close to 45 million Blu-ray discs will be sold in the US this year. This is a four-fold increase on last year. Uptake of the high definition DVDs is lower in Europe, but the UK Blu-ray disc market is growing.

“We expect 2% of unit sales in the lead markets of the UK and France to be on BD this year and this is likely to hit 5-6% next year,” said Mai Hoang, a lead analyst in the Futuresource Home Video team.

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