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  • HD DVD: 750k in US & accelerating

    Link....

    S HD DVD player sales pass 750,000

    Three-quarters of a million Americans now own a dedicated HD DVD player or Xbox 360 add-on drive, the HD DVD Promotional Group said today.

    To date, 750,000 HD DVD devices have been sold in North America, the organisation said, citing "retailer reports and other point of sale data". It pointed to busy post-Thanksgiving purchasing as one of the reasons for the growth in sales of HD DVD kit. Many of the big retail chains have been hugely discounting Toshiba players.

    And growth there has been. Seven months ago, in April, the HD DVD Promotional Group announced that hardware sales had passed the 100,000 mark - a year after the first players went on sale. By June, the total had risen to just 150,000. So, two months to increase 50 per cent, then five months to increase by 400 per cent. Pretty good going.

    The fly in the ointment is the sheer lead Blu-ray has by dint of the PlayStation 3, though it's fair to point out that those 750,000 devices have been bought by movie buffs whereas the several million PS3s that have been bought in the US have largely been acquired by gamers.

    Lower prices at last seem to be building the momentum the format has hoped for, and it'll be interesting to see how much further it can go during the remainder of the Christmas sales period.
    And even more interesting;

    Wal-Mart stores across the U.S. held a special promotional HD DVD player sale this week, offering Toshiba's HD-A2 DVD player for a mere $98.87. The sale was part of Wal-Mart's Secret In-Store Specials promotion designed to jump-start the holiday buying season. Wal-Mart's promotional materials noted that the specially priced unit wasn't available in all stores in all states, but a Wal-Mart in northern Idaho serving a community of less than 80,000 people sold out its 25 units in less than an hour Friday morning.

    HD DVD Takes Holiday Jab at Blu-ray With Sub-$100 Players

    This holiday season will likely see fierce competition in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war, and it appears HD DVD has launched a new attack. Two nationwide retailers -- Wal-Mart and Best Buy -- have offered limited numbers of HD DVD players for just under $100. The price could be a short-term promotion, but it adds pressure on the Blu-ray camp, which offers players with generally higher prices.

    Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Latest News about Wal-Mart stores across the U.S. held a special promotional HD DVD player sale this week, offering Toshiba's Latest News about Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player for a mere US$98.87. The sale was part of Wal-Mart's Secret In-Store Specials promotion designed to jump-start the holiday buying season.

    Wal-Mart's promotional materials noted that the specially-priced unit wasn't available in all stores in all states, but a Wal-Mart in northern Idaho serving a community of less than 80,000 people sold out its 25 units in less than an hour Friday morning.

    The Toshiba players have also been reportedly sold at Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) Latest News about Best Buy stores for less than a $100 this week, where they've come with five to seven free HD DVD movies (by mail), depending on the deals and rebates available at the time of purchase.

    Big Blow in the High-Definition DVD War

    The two current formats for high definition video content are HD DVD and Blu-ray, both backed by their own associations and hardware See the HP StorageWorks All-in-One Storage System. Click here. developers and content providers. Like the battle between VHS and Beta years ago, only one format will likely survive as consumers around the world enter the high definition era of entertainment.

    A favorable price point of entry for a new technology is critical to the adoption of that technology, particularly in the mass consumer-driven world of DVD sales and rentals. While both HD DVD and Blu-ray players have been available for a couple of years, the prices of both types of units have typically been several hundred dollars on the low end. With high price entry points, consumers have been slow to pick a player, concerned that they make the "wrong" choice.

    "Price can make a huge difference in a technology area like this. The HD DVD players at $100 are actually a good value for their DVD content and have competitive -- to regular DVD players with up-conversion -- performance," Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.

    "This effectively gives you the HD stuff for free, and when you include the free HD DVD disks this creates a huge value. I would expect these machines to sell through by Monday, causing the HD installed base to spike," Enderle noted. "So ... if the quantity is great enough, this could heavily favor HD DVD much like the initial, and as yet unmet, projections for the PS3-favored Blu-ray."
    Promo Pricing Only?

    The $99 price point is promotional and unlikely to become a permanent price point in the near future,J.P. Gownder, principal analyst for Forrester Research, told TechNewsWorld.

    "But it's clear that Blu-ray needs a sub-$250 player -- better yet, a $175 player," Gownder said. "The Blu-ray camp can't cede this much ground on hardware prices and still expect to become the dominant standard."

    Price Points for the Holidays


    If these promotional prices don't last, what might happen this holiday buying season?

    "Two hundred dollars is the first truly magic price break point -- the second is $100 -- where you expect sales to go vertical, [because] this is the price where a husband doesn't have to ask permission from the wife to make a purchase," Enderle noted. "So I expect, unless there is a major pricing action, for Blu-ray players to be selling around $300 to $400 and HD DVD players around $150 to $200 and drifting down but maintaining about a [double price] gap throughout the quarter."

    BestBuy.com, however, is currently offering the newer model Toshiba HD-A3 DVD player for $199.99 in the shopping cart -- down from the regular $299.99 price. The least expensive Blu-ray player offered by Best Buy is a Samsung Latest News about Samsung model offered at $449.
    Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 29 November 2007, 01:36.
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

  • #2
    We paid $400 for our first DVD player, I would gladly pay $200 each for quality Blu AND HD - this is of course when I get an HDTV.
    The low USD is showing its effects here, TV prices have dropped dramatically in Canada - so it might not be too far off.
    Q9450 + TRUE, G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2, GTX 560, ASUS X48, 1TB WD Black, Windows 7 64-bit, LG M2762D-PM 27" + 17" LG 1752TX, Corsair HX620, Antec P182, Logitech G5 (Blue)
    Laptop: MSI Wind - Black

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    • #3
      How on Earth they came to this conclusion...
      ...those 750,000 devices have been bought by movie buffs whereas the several million PS3s that have been bought in the US have largely been acquired by gamers...
      I guess they had to look good at all costs...
      Forgetting the role PS2 played in popularising DVDs also helped.

      Comment


      • #4
        I'm still waiting on my HD-DVD's from MS after buying the HDDVD player for my Xbox360..I screwed up filling it out the first time, but resubmitted it and got a notice in the mail saying it was delayed till the 25th of this month...who knows maybe I'll get them this week
        Why is it called tourist season, if we can't shoot at them?

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        • #5
          ...you mean they haven't even sold a million units yet?

          The important thing to look at would be BR vs HD disc sales.

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          • #6
            Some gamers have friends. I know what I'd get if I was going to Uni etc, it would be a PS3.
            ______________________________
            Nothing is impossible, some things are just unlikely.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Kooldino View Post
              ...you mean they haven't even sold a million units yet?

              The important thing to look at would be BR vs HD disc sales.

              I saw an article (didn't copy the link) that even with the $100 HD-DVD player that Blu-ray spanked HD-DVD during the black friday weekend (disk and player sales).



              I've seen others that confirm.

              Jammrock
              “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
              –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

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              • #8
                Wow, really? I don't know anyone with a standalone BR player.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Nowhere View Post
                  Forgetting the role PS2 played in popularising DVDs also helped.
                  I remember it more as the role that DVDs had in popularizing the PS2. When the PS2 came out, I know many people that got it because it was the same price as, or cheaper than, most other DVD players.
                  Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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                  • #10
                    What really got the DVD player sales going was Walmart and others bringing <$200 decks (APEX etc.) to market. Before that decks cost $350+ and hardly anyone I knew had one. After that the doors blew off.
                    Dr. Mordrid
                    ----------------------------
                    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

                    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Wombat View Post
                      I remember it more as the role that DVDs had in popularizing the PS2. When the PS2 came out, I know many people that got it because it was the same price as, or cheaper than, most other DVD players.
                      I think it's a reciprocal sort of thing. They both helped the sales of each other.

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                      • #12
                        I bought my first DVD player in 1998, and it lasted until 2006 when it broke after I moved. It was a Panasonic and cost $550 with 5 free titles. It was three more years before my next friend had one.



                        Black Friday HD disk sales results.

                        Disk sales for Blu-ray: 2.6 million (72.6%)

                        Disk sales for HD-DVD: 1.4 million (27.4%)

                        Winner: Blu-ray

                        Hoorah!

                        Jammrock
                        “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
                        –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Jammrock View Post
                          Black Friday HD disk sales results.

                          Disk sales for Blu-ray: 2.6 million (72.6%)

                          Disk sales for HD-DVD: 1.4 million (27.4%)

                          Winner: Blu-ray

                          Hoorah!

                          Jammrock
                          Where did those numbers come from? The percentages aren't even close to accurate. Also, do they include the Blu-Ray discs bundled with PS3s?
                          Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Wombat View Post
                            Where did those numbers come from? The percentages aren't even close to accurate. Also, do they include the Blu-Ray discs bundled with PS3s?

                            er...

                            Tracking firm Nielsen VideoScan has released information showing that 72.6 percent of high-definition discs purchased by consumers were Blu-ray Disc, and just 27.4 percent were HD DVD, reports Home Media Magazine.
                            The keys to answering your questions are in the linked article grass-h-opper (I can't believe that got censored...):

                            1) The numbers come from Nielsen VideoScan (http://www.videoscan.com/about.html) who is the sister company of ACNielsen, who does the TV ratings.

                            2) The numbers come from "discs purchased by consumers" which would indicate that this does not include bundled titles.

                            3) The only caveat is that these numbers do not include sales made at Wally-world, since they are bastards and do not like to share. Still, even the mighty Wal-mart probably would not be able to tilt the favor to HD-DVD. Maybe close the gap quite a bit, but Blu-ray still ruled the day despite both Wal-mart AND Best Buy selling $100 HD-DVD players.

                            Go Blu-ray!

                            Jammrock
                            “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
                            –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              But how does this work?

                              Disk sales for Blu-ray: 2.6 million (72.6%)

                              Disk sales for HD-DVD: 1.4 million (27.4%)

                              Basic math, basic journalism, these numbers are not from the same total. That's more of a 65/35 split.
                              Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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