Bloomberg has reported today that listings of the Apple iPad have surged on eBay since launch this past weekend, mainly due to early adopters overseas who want the device.
At its craziest, a buyer in the UK purchased a 64GB Wi-Fi version for $5000 USD, an 800 percent premium from the U.S. retail price. The iPad goes on sale in Europe later this month.
Adds Carl Howe, analyst at the Yankee Group: “This happens with nearly any hot product. Some people buy up copies and try to sell them on EBay to make a profit. There were iPhones going for $2,000 when they first came out.”
eBay says the average selling price for an iPad heading into launch was $777 USD.
Result for: early adopter
According to a new NPD analysis, Blu-ray will finally break into the mainstream in 2010, especially as prices continue to drop.
The company researched consumers using Blu-ray set-top boxes (not including the PS3) in February 2008 and in August of this year, and the figures clearly showed that BD is out of the “early adopter” phase and into the “dreamers” phase which is the group that wants the new technology but are “deterred by price.”
Regardless, NPD says falling prices, strong holiday sales, and a slowing uptrending economy will finally push Blu-ray from “niche” technology to “mainstream.”
In the 2008 study, over 64 percent of users were early adopters, which only account for 20 percent of the entire market. By August however, the number had been reduced to 38 percent, and replaced by “dreamers” and “sensibles,” a group full of middle aged families who like the technology but waited some time before investing. Those two groups account for over 40 percent of the entire market.
“In the last year, we have made great strides toward becoming mainstream, but we’re not quite there yet,” notes NPD analyst Russ Crupnick, via VB. “But going into the holiday season, we are seeing a combination of fairly reasonable price points on hardware and a lot of content. By February, after the holidays, it’s going to quickly look more and more mainstream. We are on that path.”
There are however still a decent amount of “late adopters” who do not care for the technology or are neutral. Neutral consumers are at 17 percent while “anti-tech” (users that frankly hate Blu-ray) are at 7 percent.
Result for: early adopter
According to the analyst firm Futuresource Consulting, Blu-ray disc sales will jump to over 100 million next year, worldwide, thanks to the expected reductions in Blu-ray player prices and the continued market growth of HDTVs.
“In the USA, Blu-ray has moved from early adopter phase through to early majority, with the format gaining real traction in the marketplace,” added Mai Hoang, senior market analyst at Futuresource.
“Last year in the US alone, Blu-ray video retail sales increased by a whopping 320 per cent to 24 million units; and we’re going to see momentum continuing in 2009, with over 80 million disc sales forecast.”
“The UK is the largest market for Blu-ray discs in Western Europe,” Hoang continued. “With sales of more than 3.5 million units in 2008, it represented over 40 per cent of the West European total.”
