ABI Research says that the High-Definition DVD drive market will be worth $2 billion USD by 2012. It also says that 2/3 of that market is expected to be made up of combo drives that can read both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats.

"ABI Research expects high-definition drives to bring in revenues of about $2 billion by 2012," says principal analyst Steve Wilson. "Of that, about two-thirds will be accounted for by universal drives, which can play either format. Few universal drives are sold today, partly because of their higher price. But those prices will fall to about the same as Blu-ray players by 2009, and we forecast universal player sales to exceed Blu-ray the following year."

The low adoption rate of universal drives currently is blamed on the high cost of multi format drives. That price premium is expected to fall about the same time as the price of Blu-ray player’s drops in 2009. ABI Research says it expects universal drives to sell more than Blu-ray drives the following year.

Via ABI Research