According to research firm iSuppli, Blu-ray drives have a long path ahead before establishing a strong presence in the PC arena. The firm concluded that despite the accelerated consumption of Blu-ray players, as well as more and cheaper high-definition movie titles, few PCs are Blu-ray equipped. It is estimated that by 2013 Blu-ray drives will be present in 16.3% of shipped PCs - up from 3.6% this year.
iSuppli senior analyst Michael Yang said the technology would eventually find success, but that success will be limited in the PC sector through the next five years. Yang went on to add that cost is the primary hurdle. Consumers are simply unwilling to pay a premium for high-definition PC drives. Rightfully so, overall there is a pretty limited library of Blu-ray content.
Yang compared Blu-ray's transition to dominance with previous eras of storage media. The 3.5" floppy drive lived for some 15-plus years before falling out to CDs, which eventually succumbed to the present DVD. The change is typically stimulated by a rapid adoption in everything including music, games, and movies - a crucial phase that Blu-ray has yet to hit.