Consumers Warming Less to Blu-ray Players as Delivery Choices Expand

Online U.S. consumers plan to spend more than $550 per person on CE devices this year, a 9 percent jump from 2012, said NPD Group’s 2013 “Household Penetration Study.” Nearly three in four consumers surveyed plan to buy a CE product over the next 12 months, NPD said. CE sales growth will be fueled by display devices, with 28 percent of consumers planning to buy a TV and 20 percent expecting to make a tablet purchase, NPD said.

Consumer buying interest in Blu-ray players, meanwhile, has peaked and is on the decline, NPD said. Blu-ray purchase intent fell from 16 percent last year to 12 percent in 2013, which NPD attributed to the category’s maturity and competition from other devices that deliver video content. While just 8 percent of U.S. households have a streaming media player, Q2 2013 media streamer sales approached those of Blu-ray players, NPD said. The continued growth in tablet and connected TV sales also will challenge future adoption of Blu-ray players, NPD said.

"Consumers have an abundance of devices to choose from when deciding where to watch video content,” said Ben Arnold, NPD director-industry analysis. In the current market, “nearly any device with a screen and an Internet connection can be used as a video player,” he said. As a result, Blu-ray players “are now competing as one of many options for watching video content, and sales of video devices reflect this shift."

Marketplace changes have also re-energized some older categories, NPD said. As more consumers buy tablets and smartphones, they're looking to upgrade the audio on those devices, leading to a 65 percent hike in sales of stereo headphones with microphones in first half 2013. Wireless streaming speakers sales quadrupled during the half, according to data. In home audio, soundbar sales continued to grow, climbing 54 percent in the first half of 2013, to reach a household penetration of 9 percent. But household ownership of home audio systems declined, with the number of households owning a surround-sound system falling to 29 percent. That shift will continue as consumers turn to soundbars for TV as part of a desire for electronics that present a “sleek design and minimal footprint in the living room,” Arnold said.

Existing product categories will continue to be challenged by the increasing number of features in new CE products along with changes in design, Arnold said. “While mobile devices have been the catalyst behind much of the current shifts in the industry, more change is likely upon us as hardware manufacturers and application developers push into new usage scenarios and environments,” Arnold said. More than 2,500 respondents participated in the online survey conducted in Q2.