According to recent survey by Mizuho Information & Research Institute on consumers' attitude toward next-generation optical disc equipment (reported by Nikkei Business), only 3.7% of respondents consider purchasing a Blu-ray Disc recorder "in 1 to 2 years". However, respondents who are interested in BD recorders made up 39.4%. Interest in BD players registered 3.1% and 35.6% respectively.

Regarding attitude toward pricing for BD recorders targeting respondents who answered "I have a BD recorder or player," or "I want to purchase one in 1 to 2 years," the results were as follows.

For a BD recorder with around a 1 TB HDD, the price where they feel that "I can't afford it if it's any higher" (the highest price) was about 100,000 yen. The price that they consider "is reasonable for a next-generation DVD recorder" (the compromise price) was about 92,000 yen, followed by 78,000 yen, which they consider as being "not too expensive, nor too low" (the ideal price) and 68,000 yen, for which they would "have doubts about the product quality if it were any lower" (the lowest price that guarantees product quality).

In light of these trends, Mizuho Information & Research determined that, despite many consumers considering BD recorders to be "too expensive" at present, BD recorders will spread rapidly as soon as the price drops below 100,000 yen. This pricing analysis is based on PSM analysis.

Asked to what factors they give priority when purchasing next-generation optical disc equipment (multiple answers allowed), the most respondents (52.9%) answered "image quality," followed by "capacity" (47.5%) and "audio quality" (35.9%). As it shows, factors related to product quality were ranked high.

When asked to pick up only one answer for the same question, the most chosen answer was "image quality" (24.2%) as above, but the second most chosen was "the state of penetration" (13.7%). Hence, it can be described that there is another wide tier of people who consider purchasing next-generation optical disc equipment only after measuring its penetration. Ranked third was "the price" (11.4%).

The survey was conducted from December 2006 to January 2007 targeting 10,202 people between the age of 10 and 69.

Story filed 11.05.07