Blu-ray Actually Beating DVD, if You Believe Singulus
June 10, 2008

German optical equipment manufacturer Singulus says its orders for Blu-ray replication machines are outpacing those for standard DVD. 
Singulus handled 21 orders for Blu-ray machines in the first quarter. That trumps the 17 orders Singulus fielded for standard DVD replication machines at a similar point in its format lifetime over 10 years ago.  
Maybe Singulus is just pushing to sell more of its products. But it does look like Blu-ray is has been riding a wave of positive industry buzz of late. Singular's Blu-ray hurrah comes at the same time that Wal-Mart is offering $100 gift cards with purchase of any Blu-ray player at its stores. Also, Disney chimed in last night, committing to release all of its studio-branded Blu-ray titles with Web-enabled BD-Live elements following the Oct. 7 bow of Sleeping Beauty.
It doesn't seem that long ago that analysts were proclaiming 2008 would be a relatively dud year for the format.
Well, Singulus would beg to disagree. 
Here's a quote from its CEO Stephen Baustert: 
“This means that the orders for Blu-ray in the first year of the dual layer technology already by far exceeded the volume at the start of the DVD eleven years ago with 17 machines. It is also very promising that recently the first Dual Layer Blu-ray disc machine was accepted by one of our key customers in the US.”

Posted by Susanne Ault on June 10, 2008 | Comments (0)