Toshiba has announced a move to sell their lowest player at $399. A great price for anyone interested in HD-DVD. They also are giving away 5 HD-DVDs for free when you purchase a Toshiba HD-DVD. Now this usually means one of two things:
First, Toshiba has found a way to make their player cheaper so they are dropping the price to save the consumers money and push more players into the market. This would be a great move to counter the sales of the PS3. Even at a dismal 120,000 per month that is considerably more players then the HD-DVD players have been able to amass.
However, my second take I think is probably more realistic. It is that 5 free HD-DVD giveaway that is taking me in a differant direction. Toshiba smells blood -- and it is theirs. They see the handwriting on the wall and here it is -- Casino Royal on BD is the first High Def movie title to hit in the top ten in sales on Amazon.com. This done while the regular DVD version hits number 1 at the same time. And this is just the start.
There are the Pirate movies, the Spiderman movies, the Pixar movies all coming to BD in the next three months and only on BD. I predict that the Pirate movies and the Spiderman movies will outsell Casino Royal. Then there is the launch of BD-Java which will remove the last advantage that HD-DVD has enjoyed over BD. Then there is the launch of the PS3 world-wide.
Yep, Toshiba is smelling their own blood. They cannot afford for BD to continue to outsell movies even at 2 to 1 for the rest of the year. So, lets drop the price $100 AND giveaway 5 FREE HD-DVD movies. Maybe we can get the last of the early adopter holdouts to buy our product and turn around this awful momentum that BD has.
I see this as the last thing Toshiba can do to try and restart the energy they had leading up to the PS3 launch last year. Next I expect them to start giving away a free Toshiba HD-DVD player when you purchase a Toshiba HDTV. It did not help that the new XBOX360 ELITE is NOT going to have a built-in HD-DVD player.
You should know that when a manufacturer starts giving away their shirt they are close to losing their trousers!
First, Toshiba has found a way to make their player cheaper so they are dropping the price to save the consumers money and push more players into the market. This would be a great move to counter the sales of the PS3. Even at a dismal 120,000 per month that is considerably more players then the HD-DVD players have been able to amass.
However, my second take I think is probably more realistic. It is that 5 free HD-DVD giveaway that is taking me in a differant direction. Toshiba smells blood -- and it is theirs. They see the handwriting on the wall and here it is -- Casino Royal on BD is the first High Def movie title to hit in the top ten in sales on Amazon.com. This done while the regular DVD version hits number 1 at the same time. And this is just the start.
There are the Pirate movies, the Spiderman movies, the Pixar movies all coming to BD in the next three months and only on BD. I predict that the Pirate movies and the Spiderman movies will outsell Casino Royal. Then there is the launch of BD-Java which will remove the last advantage that HD-DVD has enjoyed over BD. Then there is the launch of the PS3 world-wide.
Yep, Toshiba is smelling their own blood. They cannot afford for BD to continue to outsell movies even at 2 to 1 for the rest of the year. So, lets drop the price $100 AND giveaway 5 FREE HD-DVD movies. Maybe we can get the last of the early adopter holdouts to buy our product and turn around this awful momentum that BD has.
I see this as the last thing Toshiba can do to try and restart the energy they had leading up to the PS3 launch last year. Next I expect them to start giving away a free Toshiba HD-DVD player when you purchase a Toshiba HDTV. It did not help that the new XBOX360 ELITE is NOT going to have a built-in HD-DVD player.
You should know that when a manufacturer starts giving away their shirt they are close to losing their trousers!
