So analysts say that Blu-ray sales are going up? This news was reported a few times this week on several sites and blogs. Now a few analysts even give a number, 29.4 million households worldwide will use this technology by the end of this year, according to a new Strategy Analytics report. The report gives us the insight we already had, but adds a timeframe. For example, the Playstation 3 will continue to drive Blu-ray sales until 2009. All of us expected Playstation to stay important, but didn't have an exact year in which stand-alone Blu-ray players will take the console's place... Three years later more than 132 million homes worldwide will own at least one Blu-ray device, the report says.

"HD-DVD’s withdrawal leaves the way open for Blu-ray to become a major revenue earner for technology vendors and content owners alike," says David Mercer, Principal Analyst. Besides HD DVD's withdrawal Mercer gives two more factors. The 265 million homes that will own a HDTV by 2012 will all be interested in using Blu-ray for its better picture quality. Besides this the movie industry is definitely in a need for a new growth engine... This means that these giants will fully support Blu-ray until it generates as much as DVD.

The report finally gives us a timeframe. By 2009 Sony's Playstation 3 will no longer be the only succesful Blu-ray player and before you know, by 2012, we all be watching Blu-ray on huge HDTVs. What do you think?