Optimism abounds for Blu-ray future

February 23, 2009 U.K. market research Futuresource says U.S. consumers have embraced Blu-ray Disc as the "majority" home-entertainment format of choice, though in Europe it's still popular mostly among early adopters of new technologies. BD video retail sales increased by a whopping 320% to 24 million units (in 2008), and we're going to see momentum continuing in 2009, with over 80 million disc sales forecast. "There were concerns over how well the manufacturers would cope with the demands placed on them last year, but as a result of good planning and excellent cooperation there were no problems in the busy fourth quarter," Futuresource consultant Michael Boreham said.

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