HD DVD sales rebound but still trail Blu-ray

[Aristottle]

HD DVD sales rebound but still trail Blu-ray
12 February 2008 0:27 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 20 comments

Apparently nobody has told companies backing HD DVD that the format war is over. According to sales figures leaked to This Week In Consumer Electronics from The NPD Group, Blu-ray standalone players (not including PS3 consoles) are still outselling HD DVD units, but not nearly by the same commanding margin as a few short weeks ago.

HD DVD sales appeared to be dropping off the radar less than a month ago. However, as Toshiba, Microsoft, and company have regrouped and made a serious promotional push they've at least managed to halt a complete meltdown. According to the leaked NPD figures, the week ending January 26 saw Blu-ray players accounting for 65% of unit sales compared to nearly 90% just two weeks earlier.

According to Ross Rubin of NPD, “It has only been a couple of weeks since the Warner Bros. announcement [of exclusive support for Blu-ray], as well as Toshiba’s price promotions, Microsoft’s lowering the price on its HD DVD Xbox peripheral and the [Toshiba] HD DVD Super Bowl ad. So, the story continues to evolve. The two formats ended 2007 essentially in a dead heat. Until one camp decides to give up its format we are going to continue to see confusion at retail.”

Rather than talking about sales though, it might be more useful to think in terms of losses. While Sony's Blu-ray players and Toshiba's HD DVD models are in a virtual tie for units sold, when it comes to percentage of overall revenue from those players Sony has approximately a 2:1 advantage. Neither company is actually making money in the Hi-Def DVD player market, unless that situation changes soon it could become a question of who has the resources (and nerve) to continue supporting the cost of competing.

It seems unlikely that either will become profitable except as the lone HD disc option, and even then there's no guarantee. In other words we're just about back where we were before the Warner Bros. announcement at the beginning of the year.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/12882.cfm

[SBrooks1]

The two formats ended 2007 essentially in a dead heat.

What is he smokin'???

[zaphod]

Originally Posted by pirates

This deserves to be in the Sales and Data thread.

You should watch out. You could get banned for that.

He's already started an almost identical thread today ...

Blu-ray Sales Slide Following Warner Backing

... and got told there that he was posting in the wrong forum. Apparently he's not interested in reading any responses, just in starting new threads.

[Jackietreehorn]

Seriously, did anyone expect that Tosh wouldn't have at least a bit of an uptick in sales with the price slashing they did? I think we're making mountains out of molehills here,. It's not like HD took the lead, they just rebounded slightly from an absolutely abysmally low number of sales they had post Warner.

[spacejamz]

Originally Posted by SBrooks1

What is he smokin'???

standalones sales were pretty close (at least according the HD DVD pie chart from CES showing standalones sales as of 12/22/07):

49% HD DVD
48% BD
3% Dual Format

Total hardware (including PS3) and sofware sales were dominated by blu ray...

[dshlvrsn]

"Toshiba, Microsoft, and company have regrouped and made a serious promotional push they've at least managed to halt a complete meltdown."

Hmmm... There's that "at least" comment again.

I'm not to sure what the 'serious' promotional push was...

[theflux]

Originally Posted by dshlvrsn

"Toshiba, Microsoft, and company have regrouped and made a serious promotional push they've at least managed to halt a complete meltdown."

Hmmm... There's that "at least" comment again.

I'm not to sure what the 'serious' promotional push was...

Nothing like slashing prices of players and media to just barely keep something alive. I guess if they wanted to actually take back ground $50 players and $5 movies would be needed. I'm sure the other CEs and Studios would love to join HD DVD then. Whoever said a company need to make a profit? Toshiba pays its bills with rainbows and unicorn horns!