The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has long been the optimal platform to introduce new and innovative consumer technologies. According to a PC Word report, it has been five years since the Blu-ray Disc specification was announced. Now, five years later, this platform is enjoying much success.

Industry organization, Digital Entertainment Group, shared with PC World that sales of Blu-ray players have topped 28.5 million units. This group estimates that the number of HDTV households in the U.S. at nearly 56 million.

According to Andy Parsons (News - Alert), Blu-ray Disc president, sales have roughly doubled over the last year, a trend that has been the norm for the past three-to-four years. In comparison with packaged media in general, this growth is certainly bucking the trend. In fact, despite the decline in DVD spending, Blu-ray is still growing at a nice solid rate.

In its just released report, the DEG noted that “Avatar” sold 15.3 million copies in North America, nearly one-third of which were on Blu-ray. As a result, this movie was the best-selling Blu-ray title to date. A number of other titles enjoyed sales on Blu-ray that exceeded 30 percent of total sales and Blu-ray Disc catalog sales have increased 52 percent compared with last year’s numbers.

Parsons highlights that with five years under its belt, Blu-ray is now doing better than DVD did in its prime. "If you look at the adoption rate of the market we could sell into, almost everyone could buy a DVD, be it a PlayStation 2 or standalone DVD, because everyone had an SDTV," Parsons told PC World. "Blu-ray was selling the same number of units as DVDs, but it was doing so into less than half the market size, because not everyone had an HDTV yet. So that really means the adoption rate has picked up much faster than DVD."

Last year saw the launch of the Blu-ray 3D platform. And, as 3D HDTV in the home gains momentum, the availability of content will help keep the Blu-ray player in the living room entertainment stacks.

DEG anticipates that roughly 100 Blu-ray titles will be in stores by the end of 2011 and Disney (News - Alert) announced at CES plans for at least 15 titles on the platform in 2011. And for those still holding out on making the Blu-ray purchase, the anticipated release of all six “Star Wars” films on the platform is sure to grab attention.

Blu-ray has definitely come a long way in four and a half years at market. According to Parsons, the launch introduced something new and the concept is now growing a larger and larger retail presence. And, as the price of players continues to decline, they are becoming much more accessible for interested consumers.