Those are very surprising numbers for the Blu-ray share of total sales, given that the biggest percentages I'd seen before the holidays were still in the high-30% range. Also, the Nielson Videoscan YTD Blu-ray market split was still below 20% for the overall market, as of January.

This seems to indicate that at least for the big blockbuster movies, Blu-ray has made huge inroads. No doubt this trend benefited from the big disc price reductions on those new release titles during November and December, and the brisk sales of Blu-ray players and HDTVs during the holiday season. I have noticed that BD prices on new releases have gone back up for many titles, but you also have a larger selection of older catalog titles with reduced pricing.

Also, I think that the BD-DVD-Digital Copy combo packs have had at least some market impact. I see that with Disney titles, the digital copy codes can now be used to also access those titles online. Very smart approach.

I agree that Blu-ray is no longer a niche product, and that has been the case for probably more than a year. I think the big picture question now is how much longer the DVD format will remain viable.

My understanding is that sales of Blu-ray players surpassed those of DVD players almost a year ago. Now, you have higher end manufacturers like Oppo and Denon phasing out their DVD players. With Blu-ray price points on course to dip below $100 by the end of the year, mainline manufacturers will have little reason to continue making standalone DVD players once the price points get that close.

With the DVD format, the hardware sales for DVD players surpassed VCRs about two years before the DVD sales surpassed VHS tapes. And once that happened, it took about three years before the studios discontinued VHS releases. Understanding that the VHS and DVD pricing structures were completely different, and the situation with Blu-ray differs because BD players can also play DVDs, it would seem that the DVD format has about 4 or 5 years of viability left, if past trends serve as an accurate indicator.