According to Taiwan’s lastest home theater consumer market reports, global demand for Blu-ray players and movies is expected to increase at a steady rate over the next three years as the average prices of standalone players declines at a reasonable rate and blank media prices drop significantly.

A panel of Taiwanese Blu-ray player manufacturers held a forum in Taipei yesterday regarding sales volumes of Blu-ray movies in US, European and Japanese markets respectively. During the first three quarters of 2009, consumer sales increased 183-percent from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009, two hundred percent from Q2 2008 to Q2 2009 and 180-percent from Q3 2008 to Q3 2009.

The numbers that interest us the most are not necessarily the player adoption rates, but rather the estimated cost declines on blank BD-ROM media over the course of the next two years. In the current state of the market, the average 25GB BD-R disc sells for $5.00 in the US market. By 2012, analysts expect this price to dramatically adjust to just $1.50 per BD-R, thus also effecting the production costs and adoption rates of BD-ROM optical disc drives in the PC market segment.

We are confident that the advent of Black Friday in the United States next week will further push Blu-ray adoption among the common consumer population and promote heightened public awareness of the technology behind High Definition home entertainment media. Next weekend’s effect on the US economy will undoubtedly be an interesting event to observe.