HD-DVD players selling 44% below forcast despite discounts

[mike123abc]

DailyTech - Toshiba Lowers Sales Forecast for HD DVD Players

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."

May hit #1 on Amazon for a bit, but it seems like they are not able to sell units.

 

[mike123abc]

Toshiba Lowers HD DVD Player Forecast

Another article on the problems selling HD-DVD players. Interesting is the quote from Universal that PS3s are not being used as BD players...

 

[Derwin0]

Another article on the problems selling HD-DVD players. Interesting is the quote from Universal that PS3s are not being used as BD players...

They hitched their ride onto HD-DVD, therefore I'd take any slight they say against BD with a big grain of salt.

 

[teamerickson]

There not selling below forcast, they lowered the forcast. The actual amount sold could be higher or lower, but it doesn't sound or look good.

 

[CochiseGuy]

There not selling below forcast, they lowered the forcast. The actual amount sold could be higher or lower, but it doesn't sound or look good.

Doesn't sound good?

I think they must have been drinking too much Sake when they first projected sales of 1.8 million HD DVD players for the calendar year 2007. That would be 150,000 per month. By comparison, one of the least expensive BD players that is also a game console only sold 83,000 units last month. I bought one of 'em.

The new projection of 1 million players is still 83,333 units per month. Sounds good to me.

 

[riffjim4069]

My 2 cents...

As much as I love BD, the fact remains the Next Generation DVD isle (short isle at that) at the local BB or CC is attracting very little traffic. Heck, most folks don't have an HDTV, half of them don't have a HD programming source, and a great many of them that do have a HD receiver have them connected with composite/coax cables or are outputting at 480p.

The BD/HD DVD war equates to fighting over a piece of property the size and value of a 2 cent postage stamp.

 

[JoeSp]

What I want to know is, with the $100 off, lowering the price and offering 5 free HD-DVDs what happened? This deal should be really pushing these players off the shelves and yet the lower their expectations by almost half!

Maybe all the early adopters have their new play toys and the rest of the buyers are really going to wait out the long death march of one of the formats before they jump in. This is what I think is going to happen. If so, I need to go out and get some more Dr. Pepper and popcorn cause this is gonna be one long death sceen!!

 

[navychop]

Could be. Hope not. But if I can get a decent "October 31" compliant BD player with an internet connection at a good price sometime this year, it won't matter to me. So long as they keep releasing BD titles I want. If it also played all my current DVDs, including +/- R & RW, and DVD-audio, I might even pay $500 or $600. Especially if it didn't have the "S" word on it. And for a good dual format player, maybe a couple hundred more. That's what my hedged bet is worth: $200.

 

[diogen]

...the fact remains the Next Generation DVD isle (short isle at that) at the local BB or CC is attracting very little traffic.

Not surprisingly, since total unit (disks) sales are less than 1% of DVDs.

Heck, most folks don't have an HDTV, half of them don't have a HD programming source, and a great many of them that do have a HD receiver have them connected with composite/coax cables or are outputting at 480p.

Very true.
One of two things should happen to get a chance to get the ball rolling (adoption):
- the WOW! factor should be there and shouldn't cost $10K to see;
- both player/movies should cost the same as regular DVDs.
We aren't even close in either of those but I think the second has a better chance to happen than the first.

BTW, composite/S-Video is 480i.

Diogen.

 

[Derwin0]

BTW, composite/S-Video is 480i.

He might have meant component, which will output 480p.