Toshiba Lowers Sales Forecast for HD DVD Players by 44%!

[eddieaus]

dailytech.com

Toshiba cuts its HD DVD sales forecast by 44%
Brandon Hill (Blog) - June 12, 2007 6:47 AM


As the battle between the Blu-ray and HD DVD disc standard slithers along, both camps are looking for ways to get a "leg up" on the other.

Both sides have looked to consoles to increase marketshare. Microsoft's Xbox 360 can be equipped with a $199 HD DVD add-on and every Sony PlayStation 3 console comes equipped with a Blu-ray drive. The inclusion of the Blu-ray drive on the PS3 instantly gave Sony some serious firepower in the next generation high-definition wars.

Toshiba has countered by offering promotions to boost the sales of its HD DVD players. The company has a current promotion where customers who purchase a Toshiba HD DVD player can receive five free HD DVDs via a mail-in rebate.

This week, Toshiba is also offering a $100 instant discount on all HD DVD players to celebrate "Father's Day." The discount effectively brings the price of the low-end HD-A2 to $299.

In addition, Toshiba announced efforts to include HD DVD drives on all of its notebooks next year. Toshiba shipped 9.2 million notebooks in 2006, so making the drive standard issue would do wonders for boosting HD DVD penetration.

Despite Toshiba efforts to latch onto the console market, offer special promotions and expand its use of HD DVD drive in the mobile sector, the company is revising its forecast for HD DVD player sales. Unfortunately for Toshiba, the forecast is one that is trending downward.

The company announced that it lowered its North American sales forecasts for calendar year 2007 from 1.8 million units to 1 million units -- a decrease of 44 percent. The adjustment for the North American market will also affect global sales forecasts, but no estimate was given by Yoshihide Fujii, Toshiba's head of consumer electronics. "Obviously we are going to have to lower our previous global estimate."

Toshiba cites lower than expected unit sales for the lower forecast.

[30GB IS ENUF]

Awesome news. ;-)

[CouchPotato]

I'm sure this thread is going to be littered with HDD supporters bashing Sony's PS3 forecasts and how wrong they are.

Anyway, this is just a sign that HD disc adoption in general has been slow.

[HomeTheatreFreak]

Not a surprise at all and I have been expecting this announcment for some time. Both BD and HD DVD's overall player sales predictions were simply too high as too many people are still sitting this out hoping for a winner to the war. This doesnt take away from the fact that Toshiba is on the right path now and have had increases of up to ten times in player sales in recent weeks.

Neither BD nor HD DVD have been growing as fast as either camp had expected and I think everyone here knows this already. This is simply what happens when sales dont meet expectations and both formats are guilty in that manner.

[Sarang]

I'm not buying this, I call BS or FUD whichever you prefer.

[divian]

Originally Posted by CouchPotato

I'm sure this thread is going to be littered with HDD supporters bashing Sony's PS3 forecasts and how wrong they are.

Anyway, this is just a sign that HD disc adoption in general has been slow.

Yes, you are right andf I hope to be the first one.

I hope that Sony has the decency that Toshiba just showed today and they also make and announcement regarding their expected crazy goal of selling all those millions of PS3 players by the end of the year.

[spacejamz]

Originally Posted by Sarang

I'm not buying this, I call BS or FUD whichever you prefer.

http://www.dailytech.com/Toshiba+Low...rticle7648.htm

First story on Dailytech's home page...

[Kid Banana]

Originally Posted by divian

Yes, you are right andf I hope to be the first one.

I hope that Sony has the decency that Toshiba just showed today and they also make and announcement regarding their expected crazy goal of selling all those millions of PS3 players by the end of the year.

I don't think it was a challenge, Divian...

[divian]

Originally Posted by Sarang

I'm not buying this, I call BS or FUD whichever you prefer.

I do not think this is FUD since this is coming from Reuters.
I think Toshiba is doing the right thing by being sincere, but I also think this is weird since the timing is not right. They are in the middle of a marketing campaing for those players. I just do not get to understand how all these companies can be so seriously stupid sometimes.

[divian]

Originally Posted by Kid Banana

I don't think it was a challenge, Divian...

No. I do not think so either. It was just perfect timing. I was thinking about posting it and then I read his post.
I just think that Blu Rayers should be very careful with what they are planning to say on this one since pretty soon Sony will need to do some explaining regarding their expectations for this year with the PS3.
The challenge would be to see Sony recognizing a mistake without anybody taking them to court. I have never seen this before.

[Sarang]

Originally Posted by divian

I do not think this is FUD since this is coming from Reuters.
I think Toshiba is doing the right thing by being sincere, but I also think this is weird since the timing is not right. They are in the middle of a marketing campaing for those players. I just do not get to understand how all these companies can be so seriously stupid sometimes.

Fine I just kneejerk this way considering what some of the BD fanboys post on here.

[HomeTheatreFreak]

Originally Posted by divian

I do not think this is FUD since this is coming from Reuters.
I think Toshiba is doing the right thing by being sincere, but I also think this is weird since the timing is not right. They are in the middle of a marketing campaing for those players. I just do not get to understand how all these companies can be so seriously stupid sometimes.

Its not Fud and Toshiba absoulutely did the right thing by not delaying and announcing this. Again this was an announcment that you could see coming a mile away and you will also see one from Sony at some point during the next couple months. Again sales for both formats are well below what both camps expected and this sint an HD DVD only issue. Both BD and HD DVD predicted faster growth and simply miscalculated how many units would sell this year.

Expect Sony's announcment sometime soon. Actually now that I think about it Sony might actually delay with such an annoucnement to try and make it look like the format was is over again, lol.

Bottom line is both formats are growing slower than expected and both formats made predictions that were far too high. This isnt an HD DVD issue but an HD issue in general.

[CouchPotato]

The other takeaway here is that Toshiba plans to sell at least 850k units in North America for the remainder of the year.

That's 141k per month.

[ack_bak]

Sony has already revised their PS3 sales goals, although they may have to revise them again. What was it that Bear said last week. Something that karma is a real bitch. So all those HD DVD zelots that have been knocking sales of the PS3 and how Sony is falling short just got a taste of their own medicine...

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by CouchPotato

The other takeaway here is that Toshiba plans to sell at least 850k units in North America for the remainder of the year.

That's 141k per month.

Maybe the 1 million number includes the 360 add-on and all the laptop drives... If not, I think they would be lucky to sell 500K standalone players this year.