Yesterday at Blu-Con 2.0, apart from the keynote by Martin Scorsese, another was given by Best Buy VP of consumer operations group Mike Vitelli, touching on the prospects and issues with the Blu-ray. Vitelli stated that the company is "bullish about Blu-ray". According to attendants at the conference, home entertainment will still fall slightly in 2010, be flat in 2011 and return to growth in 2012, partly thanks to Blu-ray.
Best Buy is aggressively merchandising Blu-ray. The retailer anticipates 18.6 million Blu-ray players (including PS3s and set-top players) to sell in 2010, up from 10 million hardware units expected to sell this year.
Now, Blu-ray players and titles currently make up 66% and 25% of Best Buy's hardware and software categories. Two years ago, those percentages were just 25% and 13%.
Among the obstacles BD faces, Vitelli complained that Blu-ray titles are restricted in use to the living room. A solution is the digital copy, but Vitelli is against the studios charging more for its inclusion. Also, Vitelli said that the industry needs to do a better job of educating the public about the advantages of Blu-ray: store research shows that 68% of customers are unfamiliar with the high-definition format, and many ask Best Buy employees why they need a BD player
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3646
