Blu-Ray's biggest opportunity was to deliver a killing blow to HD-DVD with the PS3 before the average consumer cared about either format; had the PS3 sold at a similar rate to the Wii or PS2 this would have happened. The unfortunate problem is that the existance of Blu-Ray inside the PS3 is one of the main reasons why the PS3 can not sell like the PS2.
Christmas 2008/2009 are really when the HD movie products are going to start being important to the typical consumer and they will likey be given the option of buying a $100-$200 HD-DVD player, $200-$300 Blu-Ray Player, $300-$400 PS3 with Blu-Ray or a $400 Dual Format player. Now I could be wrong, but I suspect that enough people will either not see the value in the Blu-Ray format or will anticipate an evenutal dual format world and buy into the much cheaper HD-DVD players early on.
