QUOTE(jesterrace777 @ Feb 7 2008, 05:38 AM)
@Flagg, According to whom? High Def sales combined make up less than 2% of the total home entertainment industry. To declare a winner from HD-DVD or Blu-Ray at this point is just plain dumb.
Not really. Except for the two studios that are required by contract to support HD-DVD for another year, every other studio has gone Blu-Ray exclusive. It's pretty much a given that Paramount and Dreamworks will follow suit as soon as they are able to.
QUOTE(jesterrace777 @ Feb 7 2008, 05:38 AM)
Furthermore if you take a look at amazon.com's best sellers list right now it is pretty telling. The 360 HD-DVD add-on is currently outselling both models of PS3 (ranked #1 in that category). In electronics the Toshiba A3 is currently ranked number 14 and the flagship A35 is ranked in the 60s somewhere. THERE ARE NO STANDALONE BLU-RAY PLAYERS IN THE TOP 100 and they rarely ever show up there. The Toshiba A3 is also the best selling high-def player at Best Buy.
This is no big shock. The Xbox HD-DVD add-on was dumped at $79.99 with 6 free movies. How could it not sell at that price? The Toshiba A3 is similarly discounted. That's what happens when something is sold at clearance prices - it clears out.
QUOTE(jesterrace777 @ Feb 7 2008, 05:38 AM)
Bottom line is that movie studios can flip-flop at the slightest increase in cash flow.
They could, but they won't. The studios chose blu-ray for a reason, it wasn't because blu-ray was slightly ahead, it was because the studios believed that ultimately blu-ray would win the war, and by choosing sides they can hasten the end of the format war. The studios desperately want the format war to end, because the biggest reason that people are reluctant to buy a HD player is that a format war causes people to stand back and wait for fear of picking the next betamax. There would be no benefit to a studio flip flopping now, as it would cause even more customer confusion, which is exactly what the studios don't want. I know you don't want to believe it, but I don't care how many HD-DVD players Toshiba sells in the next few months, no studios will be switching back. You may not be aware that Toshiba offered large sums of money to several studios, including Warner to go HD-DVD exclusive. The fact that they chose to back Blu-ray exclusively for no money should show you how much the studios are interested in ending the format war.
QUOTE(jesterrace777 @ Feb 7 2008, 05:38 AM)
Furthermore if you want to talk about selling things at a loss let's have a look at the PS3 which is being sold at an average loss of $125 a unit. I can guarantee you that neither the 360 add-on, nor the Toshiba standalones are being sold at more of a loss than that.
You'd be surprised at how much of a loss Toshiba is taking on the hardware. The models being sold for around $120 are almost certainly being sold at more than a $125 per unit loss. Yes, the PS3 has been sold at similar and even larger losses, but that's because video game machines work on a completely different business model. They are almost always sold at a loss because the royalties from game licensing are very large (Fees can be $20 or more per disc), whereas royalties for a consumer format like HD-DVD or Blu-ray are only pennies per disc. It's simply not a sustainable business model to continually sell HD-DVD hardware at such a large loss, and Toshiba simply does not have the capital to sell millions of units at that kind of loss, whereas Sony can and will sell millions of PS3s at a similar hardware loss.
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Topic: HD DVD Addon Officially Drops to 130usd (Read 812 times)