Nestled in the bottom of a report about how Samsung is fully commited to Blu-ray, and that they won’t be making a combo player anytime soon, are some interesting interesting numbers. I don’t know why, but when some “analyst” predicts the sales of a consumer electronics device, I give it less weight than if I hear it from a manufacturer. I don’t know why - maybe it’s because the manufacturer is actually in on it, while the analyst is just peering in through the window. So that’s why I found these numbers, purported to be Samsung’s projections, interesting.

Samsung forecasts that 620,000 Blu-ray and HD DVD players will be sold worldwide in 2006, 400,000 play-only decks and 220,000 recorders, which are not yet available in the United States but have been available in Asia for nearly a year.

Sixty percent of these units will be Blu-ray and 40 percent HD DVD, despite Samsung being the only consumer Blu-ray product currently on the market. Sales will jump to 3.18 million next year, including 750,000 recorders, according to Samsung predictions, 10.05 million (2.55 million recorders) in 2008, 21.4 million (2.5 million recorders) in 2009, and 39 million (9 million recorders) in 2010.

So Samsung is predicting that by the end of the year Blu-ray will have 60% of the market and that HD DVD will have 40%. Do you believe these numbers?

Samsung Fully Supports Blu-ray, Denies HD DVD Combo Reports