Portable DVD Players
57.4% of respondents have never owned a portable DVD player, representing the fifth largest untapped market of any of the 16 devices studied in a Researchscape survey of 1,000 consumers.
Purchase Interest
11.6% of respondents were “very interested” or “extremely interested” in purchasing a portable DVD player. People interested in portable DVD players are most likely to also be interested in digital photo frames (0.526 correlation), portable media players (MP3s, 0.349 correlation) and digital cameras with video (0.344 correlation). It is surprising that portable DVD players are not considered as an alternative to portable media players, most of which can now play video, even if their primary function is to play music.
Portable DVD players are a category that doesn’t benefit much from device substitution: only 0.7% of respondents would replace a broken device from a different category (typically, a video game console, selected by 0.5%) with a portable DVD player.
1.2% of respondents without a portable DVD player said it was the device they didn’t own that they were most interested in purchasing. Of all respondents, only 0.9% identified portable DVD players as the device they were most interested in purchasing, the third lowest interest level. Portable DVD players were desired for trips, especially trips with children:
- For traveling (mentioned by 3 respondents):
- “For times when I travel.”
- “It would be nice to have a DVD player travel with me everywhere. That way, I can still work on my computer while watching a movie.”
- “It would be useful for watching movies during long trips and in the car.”
- For trips with the kids (mentioned by 3 respondents):
- “Car trips for the kids.”
- “Something that would be cool, for the kids to watch on long trips.”
Current Ownership
25.9% of respondents currently own a portable DVD player, the fourth lowest ownership rate of the 16 devices studied.
19.1% no longer use the device, giving it the fifth highest rate of lapsed usage (compared to an average of 16.3%). It had the second lowest rate of frequent use: 23.6% of owners reported using their portable DVD player frequently.
In a separate survey of 400 consumers, we asked respondents a hypothetical question: which devices would they purchase if they had lost all of their devices in a robbery and new purchases were covered by insurance? 28.9% of current owners were “very interested” or “extremely interested” in repurchasing a portable DVD player, the third lowest interest level in repurchasing.
Portable DVD players are the second least valued of devices, behind only digital photo frames: 32.1% of owners said it was the device that they were least interested in replacing if it broke.
Past Ownership
16.7% of respondents have owned a portable DVD player in the past but no longer do so. This represents 39.2% of the group of current and former owners.