By : Chris Tribbey | Posted: 24 Sep 2009
ctribbey@questex.com

While about 5 million standalone Blu-ray Disc players will be purchased by broadband households in America this year, standalone player sales are up, but “still not taking over the world,” Tricia Parks, CEO of Parks Associates, said in sharing a forecast of consumer electronics spending for the rest of the year.

The research firm shared the results of two consumer surveys involving a combined 8,000 broadband consumers, covering consumer electronic spending decisions for 2009 compared to 2008.

Between 2007 and 2008, flat-panel LCD TVs and MP3 players were the only two categories that saw a significant increase in purchases, according to the survey results, and for the first half of 2009, 48% of respondents said they didn’t make a single consumer electronics purchase.

“It wasn’t very good news,” Parks said.

Total broadband household spending on consumer electronics between the first half of 2008 to the first half of 2009 was down to $1,285, from $1,373.

The average price of a standalone Blu-ray player dropped $30 during that period, according to the data. Also, 18- to 34-year-olds remained the largest group of overall consumer electronics customers. Eight percent of respondents said they had the intention of buying a Blu-ray player by the end of the year.

Brick-and-mortar store spending was actually up between the first half of 2008 and the first half of 2009, more than online spending, Parks said, which she partially attributed to the closeout sales at Circuit City stores.

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