I doubt Blu-Ray players are in the top 5 most sought devices this Christmas, considering DVD players outsold them 3-to-1 on Black Friday. What's the source for that?

Here is the link that the Blu-ray player is the #1 device for HDTV users.  http://gear.ign.com/articles/938/938098p1.html

I agree with Samsung on this. Blu-ray will most likely not see the same kind of life span as DVD. The reasoning behind this is that there were far greater differences/advantages with DVD compared to VHS, than there is between DVD and Blu-ray. In other words it will take much longer for Blu-ray to capture the market, than it took DVD.

I believe we will see downloadable content take over the market within a few years - perhaps even before Blu-ray has replaced DVD as market leader. It's inevtiable.

No its not. Are you telling me you would like to sit and download a monster like MGS4? Right now that would take forever.

Before downloading takes over discs speeds will have to greatly increase, and even then I feel there will still be a demand for physical collections (people will still rather have a physical collection of eg: movies than a collection stored on a HDD)

Those holiday wish lists articles have been misleading in the past. I'd rather wait for sales figures. 25% of USA households have a HDTV, that would point to insane sales figures which don't seem to be happening.

• All Blu-ray players will play all DVDs and the playback will be upscaled to 720p.
• The migration from VHS to DVD was slowed because people had to discard their VHS libraries in favor of DVDs or they had to retain their VCRs for VHS playback. 
  
• The resolution improvement from VHS (240x480) to DVD (720x480) is much less than the improvement from DVD (720x480) to Blu-ray (1920x1080).

Granted, but they are probably a lot more accurate than an article posted on the Internet 7 months ago which is my main problem with this thread.

Compared to VHS

DVDs didn't need to be rewound

DVDs were smaller and lighter

DVD's were less prone to losing quality over time (digital not analogue)

DVD's could have 'special features', and these could be navigated through

DVD's could be paused without damaging them

DVD's could have bookmarks placed in them, both by the studio and the consumer

DVD's make excellent coasters

Blu Ray > DVD >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Betamax>VHS

That would be why DVD will likely still be outselling Blu-Ray in 5 years time.

I can see Blu-Ray outselling DVD if/when it gets near DVD prices. Blu-Ray quality is not a big deal (or even terribly noticeable vs upscaled DVD) for most people, so price is king.