Recent figures by the Digital Entertainment Group show that the first quarter of 2007 was the strongest Q1 in the history of DVD hardware and software sales in the US.

Based on data from the Consumer Electronics Association, retailers, and manufacturers, DEG estimates that eight million DVD players were sold to U.S. customers from January through March of this year, the highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2001. Overall, some 203 million DVD players have been sold to consumers since the format launched in 1997.

By contrast, Toshiba announced in April that it had sold 100,000 standalone HD-DVD players in the 12 months since HD DVD’s launch. According to Consumer Electronics Daily, sales of standalone Blu-ray Disc players likely mirrored those of HD DVD, although Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles add another 1.2 million Blu-ray Disc player sales to the overall numbers.

On the software side, DVD disc sales are still going strong as well while Blu-ray and HD-DVD titles trickle out of the gate. The 1.2 million Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs sold in Q1 2007 was less than 1 percent of the 414.4 million DVD titles sold in the same period. Since the launch of HD DVD a year ago, 2.14 million Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs have sold compared with 1.675 billion DVDs in the 10-year life of the format, according to DEG figures.

Story filed 13.05.07