Blu-ray DVDs have arrived at the Half Hollow Hills Community Library (great website!), which serves the residents of Dix Hills and Melville, Long Island, New York.Is this the right move for your library?
Link to August 1 ABI Research post, "Consumers Delaying Blu-ray Player Purchases".
Excerpt:
Blu-ray players are not flying off retailers’ shelves, at least not in the numbers the industry might hope for. A new consumer survey from ABI Research has revealed a widespread reluctance to commit to a Blu-ray player in the near future: over half of the 1000 respondents, citing “other priorities,” say they have no plans to purchase one; a further 23% are likely to buy, but not until sometime in 2009.
ABI Research principal analyst Steve Wilson says that much of the lukewarm response can be attributed to consumers’ perceptions about the value proposition that Blu-ray delivers. “Consumers were happy to embrace standard DVD when that format arrived because the improvement in quality over VHS videotapes was dramatic. Standard DVD didn’t require the purchase of a new TV either. In contrast, while half of the respondents to our survey rated Blu-ray’s quality as ‘much better’ than standard DVD, another 40% termed it only ‘somewhat better,’ and most are very satisfied with the performance of their current DVD players.”
I still live in a tube TV household, so don't ask me for any cutting-edge advice on this topic.
The blu-rays have been checked out a lot, actually. I think the blu-ray owners in our community are happy to have this little niche collection in the library. There's been some interest in the format from folks who never heard of blu-ray, too, even if it is along the lines of "what's that?"
ReplyDeleteEllen the librarian
PS - thanks for the link!