Blu-ray stalls in the PC market

Research firm iSuppli said in a recent report that the adoption of Blu-ray disk drives between 2009 and 2013 will increase from 3.6 per cent of all systems to 16.3 per cent, while DVD/CD drives will retain more than four fifths of the market.

The company said that the high cost of the drives, combined with the slow transition from DVD to Blu-ray by studios, will keep most buyers from finding a compelling reason to opt for a Blu-ray drive.

Analysts also noted that the reliance on DVD-RW disks for storage could further hamper the transition to Blu-ray, while the smaller size of most notebook and desktop monitors negates many of the advantages of Blu-ray's high-definition picture.

"They eventually will find success, but during the next five years that success will be limited in the PC segment," said iSuppli senior analyst Michael Yang. "The cost issue is amplified by the fact that the library of content is so small that there really isn't a reason for users to switch at the moment."

ISuppli suggests that Blu-ray's long-term adoption will pick up as the cost of drives begins to fall, and users migrate more of their libraries to Blu-ray discs.