The Edmonton Journal and Japan Today are both reporting on high-def recorder sales in Japan. Unlike the US, where disc recorders have never sold well, they sell very well in Japan. The percentage of disc recorders sold that are high-def (BD or HD DVD) rose from 6.1% in Otober to around 20% in November and December. And of those high-def units, Blu-ray accounted for a full 90% of the recorders sold in that three month period. Most of the sales were units produced by Sony, which took 60% of the segment. Panasonic took 27%, and Sharp 10%. Toshiba, the main HD DVD backer, took only 4% of the high-def recorder market. Due to the higher pricing of the high-def units, they accounted for 35% of the market revenue on recorders for the last two months of 2007.
The jump in high-def recorder sales, from 6.1% to 20%, seems to indicate a tipping point was reached in the market. That’s a significant shift, bringing HD out of a niche into the mainstream market. And it is a huge win for Blu-ray to take the market 9:1 over HD DVD.
