Less than one year ago, Japanese corporation Toshiba gave up on the HD DVD format, and opened up the path for Sony’s Blu-ray technology. The decision was made following an overwhelming popularity of Blu-ray among big retailers, and despite efforts from Toshiba to keep the HD DVD alive. Blu-ray soon turned from the market’s favorite into market’s absolute ruler.

 

The support for Blu-ray became clear, with names such as Woolworths, Wal-Mart, Universal Pictures Digital, Netflix, Amazon, and many others offering full support for the new generation platform.

 

The  2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, opening this week, will create a huge opportunity for Blu-ray to reach not just retailers and producers, but to also reach consumers. The economic downturn has undoubtedly left a mark on the consumer electronics industry, and the following months will not get any easier.

 

Furthermore, Blu-ray needs to seize all opportunities, as downloadable digital media gains more terrain. Analysts predict that Blu-ray will have a hard time dealing with digital downloads, however, some say last year’s hardware sales were a sign of an increasing adoption of the Blu-ray format. But the question is: how long will it last, since the Blu-ray format is now challenged by HD online downloads.

 

According to the British Video Association, Blu-ray had a remarkable performance last year, selling 1.5 million discs in December alone, a 400% surge compared to the same period last year, despite the economic downturn.

 

Dark Knight was the best selling Blu-ray title of the year, with 281,000 copies sold in just three weeks. The 178,000 copies of the title sold in the first week alone make it the most popular release in this format.

 

Helen Davis Jayalath, Head of Video at Screen Digest, noted that the Blu-ray sales will most likely continue to rise in 2009 as well, to 17 million units. That however will still be far from the still popular DVD format.

 

The economic climate, Jayalath said, will make it harder for Blu-ray to achieve mass market status, but demand is building for Hi-Def discs. Titles such as Quantum of Solace, Tropic Thunder and The Duchess are expected to bring a significant contribution to Blu-ray sales in 2009.

 

It’s still too early to say how the Blu-ray format will handle all the pressure, but in the past months, the format has undoubtedly managed to gain more adepts, showing a constant (but rather slow) growth, as last year’s sales have shown. But Blu-ray fans are convinced the format is here to stay, and the best is yet to come.

 

LG Electronics recently announced deals with major websites that will offer consumers video-on-demand on their Blu-ray Disc players. The company is also expected to unveil new Blu-ray players at CES 2009, capable of streaming content directly from the Internet.