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Toshiba thanks HD DVD promotion for strong sales

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 May 2007 4:39 User comments (18)

Toshiba thanks HD DVD promotion for strong sales One week into Toshiba's month-long HD DVD promotion, the manufacturer is reporting extremely strong sales, including 5 to 10-fold increases at a few retail outlets.
A couple weeks ago, we reported that Toshiba was starting the promotion and offering a $100 rebate with its HD-A2 model, dropping the price of the unit to $299 after rebate. Amazon began selling the unit at a price of $238 after rebate and the player almost immediately jumped to the top of Amazon's hottest selling DVD players.

Jodi Sally, VP of marketing for Toshiba had this to say during an interview, "We’re thrilled to see that consumers are, by far, choosing Toshiba’s HD DVD players as their source for high-definition."

According to Toshiba, starting June 10th, the $100 rebate will be extended to all of Toshiba's HD DVD players.

Source:
HD Digest

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18 user comments

131.5.2007 16:40

toshiba should give it a rest.

231.5.2007 16:45

price drops only lasts short-term but its still a good news.

331.5.2007 16:50

Quote:
price drops only lasts short-term.
Not when the competition is still $300 more.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 04 Jun 2007 @ 5:02

431.5.2007 16:54
fgamer
Inactive

At least their thinking of the customer and trying to beat Blu-ray, this is definately good for us.

531.5.2007 17:04

Quote:
including 5 to 10-fold increases at a few retail outlets.
That the key a few retail outlets.Let see some numbers because your HD-DVD movie titles not moving that good you only have one in the top 10 Planet Earth.Stop with the blind proper gander Toshiba.

631.5.2007 17:16

Yes! please sell some more so prices can drop and blu ray would DIE. I'll get HD-DVD when it drop to $100.

71.6.2007 01:50

W00t go Toshiba!

We can actually see both formates are really going at it, even though BR is far behind in price they still have lowered it below what it costs to make (i.e. ps3 even if it is a terrible GC) this shows the HD DVD camp is also putting in the effort, now looking at the price $300 that about £175 i can definatly see people buy it considering people buy £150 DVD recordable players! So looks like this formate war will soon be over if toshiba continue to lower the price, i reckon if they hit $200 and BR players still havn't gone down, they should have won the war!

Come on tell me you would pay $600! When u can get an HD player for $200! i think not! Looks like SONY once again have lost a formate war! LOLZ! XD

81.6.2007 02:46
hughjars
Inactive

Why should anyone be surprised at HD DVD following the strategy they have said they are going to follow?

HD DVD can compete on price at a level BD cannot......and as the customer response is showing only too clearly the BD claims that the 'war' is all over is just a laughable sack of cac.

HD DVD does not rely on a single product (unlike BD & the PS3) but has a range of products at various pricing-points.
We'll see even lower pricing later this year when the 3 Chinese brands arrive too (at $100 - $150?).

The price reductions are not actually temporary at all......I have yet to see prices go up after a drop and in fact the Toshiba HD A2 can be had on Amazon USA for between $230 and $299.
The Toshiba HD A20 is currently $396 and the HD XA2 is between $569 and $593.

You can expect further price drops between now and X-mas 2007.

I fully expect the Toshiba HD A2 to be down to $200 by X-Mas.....opening the way for the mass-market to be opened up and those looking for a high quality reasonably priced SD DVD to simply select the Toshiba HD A2 - which is also an excellent upscaling SD DVD player btw- and which also happens to play HD DVD's.

The more 'casual' bottom end of the market will be catered for with those cheap Chinese players being sold in supermarkets & the big malls
(Wallmart sells 40% of SD DVD players in the USA for instance.....and whether the specific 'Walmart deal' mentioned a while back happens or not there are definitely 3 other brands of Chinese HD DVD player coming regardless).

We've already seen the BD retail movie disc sales lead drop from over 70:30 to 60:40, it'll be very interesting to see how the numbers respond to the latest aggressive pricing from HD DVD.

.....but one thing is certain, HD DVD is not going to go away.
BD has singularly failed to knock HD DVD out of the 'game' - and tales that the format 'war' is over are exposed as what they always have been - pure post CES 2007 delusional fantasy from the BD propagandists & their gullible fanclub.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 01 Jun 2007 @ 2:46

91.6.2007 08:30

News


PS3 Boosts European Blu-ray Sales

Posted May 21, 2007 by Josh

Blu-ray Disc

Prior to the release of the PS3 in Europe, HD DVD was comfortably outselling Blu-ray discs on a weekly basis. But now, less than two months since PS3's release, Blu-ray has gained a 64% share on the year, and consistently outsells HD DVD weekly. Specifically, last week's data shows Blu-ray having a weekly sales ratio 3-to-1 over HD DVD, a ratio Blu-ray in the US has only managed once (when Casino Royale was released).


For many months, top executives from Blu-ray exclusive studios have claimed that there is no format war because of how well Blu-ray is selling outside of the United States. Their comments have now been backed by data suggesting that Blu-ray in Europe may soon rise to the popularity it has in Japan (where Blu-ray owns 96% of the HD movie market).

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Jun 2007 @ 8:32

101.6.2007 09:39
hughjars
Inactive

LMAO.

A Blu-ray fanzine site for "news" on the so-called 'format war?!

Beyond parody.

111.6.2007 10:14

'Pirates' Outsells 'Matrix' in Blu-ray, HD DVD Showdown
Fri Jun 01, 2007 at 01:23 PM ET


Last week's sales estimates are in, and in terms of sheer unit sales, Disney's Blu-ray-only release of the first two "Pirates of the Caribbean" flicks handily beat Warner's HD DVD-only release of the two "Matrix" box sets.

According to market research estimates from Home Media Magazine, the two "Pirates" films sold a combined total of a little less than 47,000 units, while the "Matrix" sets sold about 13,900 units.
that 3 to 1

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Jun 2007 @ 8:32

121.6.2007 10:46
hughjars
Inactive

You are either ignorant of your own quote or else seem determined to ignore the fact that The Matrix was a 3 movie boxed set, a 3 movie boxed set with a 3 movie boxed set price-tag.

That can hardly be compared to an individual movie.

.....and much as you also so obviously want to pretend otherwise no-one said HD DVD was outselling BD (yet).
but
it is also very clear that BD's 1.2million movie disc sales performance, on the back of 3 million PS3s, is rather poor when compared to HD DVD's 998,000 movie disc sales on the back of approx 250,000 various HD DVD players.

Better luck next time.

131.6.2007 18:49

All in all this is great news at least the made the first move to bring the price down to levels where consumers can buy them and now their are going to stand back and wait for Blu-ray counter.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 01 Jun 2007 @ 6:50

142.6.2007 14:15

Lol, we all now nextgen76 is a massive SONY fanboy i wouldn't expect anythign less from him, from the posts i've read from him!

hughjars We have to just ignor him as all he will ever do is bash anythign that is against or in direct competition with Sony!

Oh thats great news i didn't no the Chiness companys were bring out HD DVD player between $100-$150, that about £60-$80.

I would also liek to point out taht the figures of most BR disks sold include, the 175,000 free copies that SONY gave away with their PS3 to the first 175,00 customers who registered their ps3 online in the UK!

Personally i believe this format war is going to be over in a few years now! Wonder what will happen to the camp that loose, with movie production! Would the BR assosication allow Universal to make movies of BR? and visa versa woudl the HD DVD camp allow sony to produce usign their disc? if not, this war will last forever until i new cheaper and better median comes along!

153.6.2007 07:31

Oh ya this article forgot to mention that the toshiba players also come with 5 free HD-DVD movies.

163.6.2007 08:34

Originally posted by club42:
Oh ya this article forgot to mention that the toshiba players also come with 5 free HD-DVD movies.
It does, read the linked article :)

Btw, nexgen, please do not post links to other sites or i will keep having to edit them out.

173.6.2007 13:01
hughjars
Inactive

The funny thing is that if you take those figures (Pirates @ 47,000 units & the Matrix boxset @ 13,900 units) and multiply those Matrix boxset numbers by 3 (seeing as it is afterall 3 separate movies) you get something you can compare (41,700).

Which means to say there is very very little in it.

Which turns out to be less than as impressive as the PS3/BD/Sony fanclub would have us believe.

In fact it's rather laughable considering BD is already supposed to have 'won' and has 3 million PS3s as support while HD DVD only has approx 250,000 players out there.

Interestingly enough I just had a look tonight and saw that the 720p/1080i Toshiba HD A2 is currently $250 on Amazon USA ($230 for a refurb) and the 1080p Toshiba HD A20 is $308.
That's only a $20 rise from the lowest point during the recent '$100 off' promotion but still excellent value - I wonder how long it'll be until the retail price drops below the promotion price?
A month or 2?
They're certainly not putting that $100 back on.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Jun 2007 @ 1:06

1828.6.2007 06:21

Toshiba is either really smart, or really stupid. Either way, they have commited themselves to undercut Blu Ray at every oppertunity.

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