It looks like the death of the HD DVD format did not boost Blu-ray player sales after all, going by Blu-ray sales figures from the NPD Group.  Another problem for Blu-ray is that a report from ABI Research has found that many consumers may not see any difference between the picture quality of Blu-ray against the legacy DVD format.  Going by NPD, standalone Blu-ray player sales tumbled 40% between January and February and then improved by only 2% in March. 

So far the NPD has decided against releasing sales figures for Blu-ray players for April due to how low Blu-ray player sales have been, as it fears the updated figures would make it easy to identify individual retailers.  It will instead release these figures later in the year.  As many standalone Blu-ray players in the stores lack the latest Blu-ray profile, between this and the high price, NPD does not expect Blu-ray to start taking off again until this Christmas once the player prices fall to around $200.

With the growing number of households getting equipped with HDTV sets, consumers are now turning more towards much cheaper upscaling DVD players.  While the picture quality of an upscaled DVD may not match that of Blu-ray, the price tag of around $70 is far more attractive than the hefty priced standalone Blu-ray players.  In the first quarter of 2008, HD upscaling DVD player sales have grown 5% compared with the same quarter in 2007, while DVD players lacking any upscaling capability have fallen 39% between these same two quarters.

Thanks to CDan for letting us know about this news.