AfterDawn: News

Toshiba lowers HD DVD player sales target

After disappointing sales in the United States, Toshiba Corp. has announced it will lower its sales target for HD DVD players in the United States to 1 million units in 2007, down 44% from the 1.8 million previous estimate. "Sales in the U.S. have been slower than expected, and we are going to have to lower our U.S. sales forecast," said Yoshihide Fujii, head of Toshiba's digital consumer business.

"Obviously, we are going to have to lower our previous global estimate (too)," he added. He declined to give any new sales target for now. The HD DVD promotional Group recently claimed that more than 150,000 dedicated players have been sold, accounting for 60% of all HD players sold, excluding gaming console hardware.



"Consumers who are buying Playstation 3 are buying it as a game console. They're simply not buying it for watching as many high-definition movies as Sony said they would," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment said when spoke at a news conference announcing the release of Toshiba's Vardia-brand HD DVD players in Japan.

Source:
Reuters

Written by: James Delahunty @ 12 Jun 2007 17:09

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• 14 comments

• limelight

  Just get it over with already so I can go out and buy the winning hi-def format for crying out loud.

  12.6.2007 18:50 #1

• connolly

  Stupid comment by Universal. PS3 owners are not just buying the PS3 as a games console because at the moment there aren't any games.
  However Blu-ray film sales are outpacing HD-DVD 2 to 1 with less stand alone Blu-ray players telling a different story to what Ken Graffeo is saying.
  How long can Toshiba gamble like this, maybe 1 more year, maybe six months. Once Universal goes multi-format its game over.

  13.6.2007 01:10 #2

• hughjars

  Originally posted by connolly:Stupid comment by Universal. - No it's not.
  
  It's perfectly fair to point out that with the supposed benefit of over 3 million PS3 owners (compared to approx 250,000 HD DVD owners) the best PS3 managed was a 70:30 split in high def DVD sales.
  
  .....an 'advantage' that has fallen to a little less than 60:40 lately; not, I might add, 2:1 - but given the 'installed user base' numbers as they are right now even 2:1 would be pretty pathetic.
  
  It's a fact that PS3s just aren't shifting the numbers of BD retail movies that they were expected to.
  
  It's also undeniable that PS3 'attachment rates' remain appallingly low (in fact with over 3 million PS3s sold and only 1.2 million BD movies sold that is an attachment rate of well under 1 per PS3).
  
  HD DVD meanwhile has shifted 998,000 with 250,000 HD DVD players at the last count, an attachment rate of almost 4 discs to 1 player.
  
  BD are now lumbered with a situation where the tactical boost PS3 gave them initially will not help them win the war.
  
  But PS3 is never going to get even remotely close to the low prices of the next gen 'SoC' HD DVD players due at the end of the year and so is never going to 'win' in the a/v mainstream mass-market.

  13.6.2007 06:10 #3

• connolly

  hughjars - you and me are never going to agree on this, so I think we should agree to disagree. Time will tell either way.

  13.6.2007 06:14 #4

• hughjars

  I suspect you're right connelly and you're as entitled to put your view as I am mine.

  13.6.2007 06:17 #5

• diabolic

  These numbers are almost insignificant, we'll see what happens with HD DVD when toshiba laptops start shipping with an HD DVD drive. Toshiba sells millions of computers yearly, quite a bit more than current PS3 sales. This hd battle isn't going to be over anytime soon, don't hold your breath.

  13.6.2007 09:14 #6

• NexGen76

  That guy at Universal don't have a clue.The Blu-ray feature is what makes the console good.I have a library of 25 Blu-Rays & still growing bout to get Ghost Rider this weekend alone with Blood Diamond.HD-DVD was pounding there chest just a couple day ago now the true comes out....lol
  
  Also alot of BD owner are Boycotting Universal til they start support Blu-ray, i will be watching this real close.

  13.6.2007 10:40 #7

• hughjars

  Originally posted by NexGen76: alot of BD owner are Boycotting Universal til they start support Blu-ray, i will be watching this real close. - So will I.
  
  That's an amazing development.
  
  I'd love to hear how a Blu-ray owner boycott of the HD DVD exclusive studio Universal is going to work.
  
  LMAO.

  13.6.2007 13:33 #8

• NexGen76

  Quote:Originally posted by NexGen76: alot of BD owner are Boycotting Universal til they start support Blu-ray, i will be watching this real close. - So will I.
  
  That's an amazing development.
  
  I'd love to hear how a Blu-ray owner boycott of the HD DVD exclusive studio Universal is going to work.
  
  LMAO.Simple you don't buy any of there SD stuff...But there is a online boycott where you can sign up i will see if i can find the link.Boycott are very effective if you got numbers.

  13.6.2007 15:41 #9

• hughjars

  Originally posted by NexGen76: Boycott are very effective if you got numbers.....and with only approx 1.2 million BD movies sold to approx 3 million PS3 owners your BD fanclub clearly hasn't got anything like sufficient numbers.
  The PS3 owners simply do not buy enough movies for anyone to be too concerned about their grumbling that they haven't gotten everyone on their side.
  
  ....and what is this anyways?
  'Plan C'?
  
  ('Plan A' - was the attempt to pretend, BS, spin & generally claim Universal had to go format neutral soon after CES 2007 'after the HD DVD contracts ended, senior HD DVD supporting managers being retired/moved/fired' blah blah blah had run it's course, having failed to build a head of steam - or 'momentum' as the BD insiders love to put it - gotten nowhere & been totally busted for the delusional nonsense it was?
  
  'Plan B' was a laughable attempt by some of the BD fanclub to pretend that Universal - only the biggest movie library of the lot of them - didn't have anything they were interested in!
  
  I'm just surprised they're not happy & contented & sticking with having endless Spiderman, X-Men and Pirates OTC sequels)

  13.6.2007 17:27 #10

• hughjars

  LMAO.
  
  You couldn't make it up! What will the drone/shills say now, huh?
  
  Sony return to planet earth, wises up a little and starts to see the same sense as any & everyone else (with an objective reasonable eye for this stuff) .......
  
  Sony now declare the high def war has only just begun!
  
  Quote:Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: Sony says the war has just begun
  
  Sony (SNE) executives in the United States are well aware that the battle has barely begun between their Blu-ray disc format for high-definition content and rival HD DVD, they told me over lunch this week.
  
  Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing in Sony’s Home Products Division, said that Sony has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 stand-alone Blu-ray disc players so far; that number does not include the hundreds of thousands of PlayStation 3 consoles that include a Blu-ray drive. That number is low enough, I told him, that it probably will be dwarfed by the number of high definition players that sell in the month of November alone. He didn’t disagree. (The holiday season and its discounts will really begin to shape the HD player landscape. Note: Microsoft (MSFT) has backed HD DVD with an add-on for the Xbox 360.)
  
  Meanwhile, the rival HD DVD format is showing signs of life. Though fewer movie studios are backing the HD DVD format, the machines that play the discs are far more affordable than Blu-ray players. At Amazon.com, the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player costs $250, and is the top-selling DVD player as of Thursday morning. Sony’s most affordable Blu-ray player, the BDP-S300, costs twice as much. The highest-ranked Blu-ray player on Amazon’s list is at #30.
  
  Waynick said he believes one format, either Blu-ray or HD DVD, will win this format war – the players that combine both formats are just too expensive, he said. He acknowledged that Blu-ray’s price would be a big factor in determining which format wins, and said Sony is working hard to close the gap.
  
  I pushed a bit on this point about price. If HD DVD players are already selling for $250, it’s conceivable that they could be at $199 or even less during the holiday season sales, I pointed out. If the Chinese manufacturers start building HD DVD players, the price will get especially low. How will Blu-ray compete? Waynick pointed to the larger volume of movies that are available in Blu-ray format, which is a decent argument.
  
  But again, Amazon.com’s listings offered a powerful counterpoint Thursday morning. On the list of top-selling DVDs, Planet Earth in HD DVD format is ranked #4 – higher than the regular DVD versions of Seinfeld - Season 8, The Sopranos: The Complete First Season, and Ghost Rider. The top-selling Blu-ray title is Planet Earth – but it’s way down at #19. I’ve been checking for several days, and they’ve stayed in roughly the same positions.
  
  What does this mean? Here’s my take:
  
  Blu-ray has an early lead, but that doesn’t count for much. What matters is, who will have the lowest-priced high-definition players at a decent quality level when mainstream consumers finally start buying HD?
  
  If the mainstream starts buying HD players this holiday season, expect to see HD DVD surge ahead of Blu-ray in a big way. Market makers like Wal-Mart will run with whatever player they can price below $200, just to draw people into stores. And most people in the mainstream won’t necessarily buy 10 HD movies; they’ll buy one or two, and wait for the studios to follow the installed base.
  
  And if HD DVD sells big, you’d best believe the Hollywood studios will follow. Aside from Sony, they really don’t care with HD format wins – just as long as they get sell a lot more movies.
  
  http://blogs.business2.com/utilitybelt/2...y_vs_hd_dv.html

  14.6.2007 15:29 #11

• NexGen76

  Quote:LMAO.
  
  You couldn't make it up! What will the drone/shills say now, huh?
  
  Sony return to planet earth, wises up a little and starts to see the same sense as any & everyone else (with an objective reasonable eye for this stuff) .......
  
  Sony now declare the high def war has only just begun!
  
  [quote]Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: Sony says the war has just begun
  
  Sony (SNE) executives in the United States are well aware that the battle has barely begun between their Blu-ray disc format for high-definition content and rival HD DVD, they told me over lunch this week.
  
  Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing in Sony’s Home Products Division, said that Sony has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 stand-alone Blu-ray disc players so far; that number does not include the hundreds of thousands of PlayStation 3 consoles that include a Blu-ray drive. That number is low enough, I told him, that it probably will be dwarfed by the number of high definition players that sell in the month of November alone. He didn’t disagree. (The holiday season and its discounts will really begin to shape the HD player landscape. Note: Microsoft (MSFT) has backed HD DVD with an add-on for the Xbox 360.)
  
  Meanwhile, the rival HD DVD format is showing signs of life. Though fewer movie studios are backing the HD DVD format, the machines that play the discs are far more affordable than Blu-ray players. At Amazon.com, the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player costs $250, and is the top-selling DVD player as of Thursday morning. Sony’s most affordable Blu-ray player, the BDP-S300, costs twice as much. The highest-ranked Blu-ray player on Amazon’s list is at #30.
  
  Waynick said he believes one format, either Blu-ray or HD DVD, will win this format war – the players that combine both formats are just too expensive, he said. He acknowledged that Blu-ray’s price would be a big factor in determining which format wins, and said Sony is working hard to close the gap.
  
  I pushed a bit on this point about price. If HD DVD players are already selling for $250, it’s conceivable that they could be at $199 or even less during the holiday season sales, I pointed out. If the Chinese manufacturers start building HD DVD players, the price will get especially low. How will Blu-ray compete? Waynick pointed to the larger volume of movies that are available in Blu-ray format, which is a decent argument.
  
  But again, Amazon.com’s listings offered a powerful counterpoint Thursday morning. On the list of top-selling DVDs, Planet Earth in HD DVD format is ranked #4 – higher than the regular DVD versions of Seinfeld - Season 8, The Sopranos: The Complete First Season, and Ghost Rider. The top-selling Blu-ray title is Planet Earth – but it’s way down at #19. I’ve been checking for several days, and they’ve stayed in roughly the same positions.
  
  What does this mean? Here’s my take:
  
  Blu-ray has an early lead, but that doesn’t count for much. What matters is, who will have the lowest-priced high-definition players at a decent quality level when mainstream consumers finally start buying HD?
  
  If the mainstream starts buying HD players this holiday season, expect to see HD DVD surge ahead of Blu-ray in a big way. Market makers like Wal-Mart will run with whatever player they can price below $200, just to draw people into stores. And most people in the mainstream won’t necessarily buy 10 HD movies; they’ll buy one or two, and wait for the studios to follow the installed base.
  
  And if HD DVD sells big, you’d best believe the Hollywood studios will follow. Aside from Sony, they really don’t care with HD format wins – just as long as they get sell a lot more movies.
  
  http://blogs.business2.com/utilitybelt/2...s_hd_dv.html[/q
  uote]
  
  
  
  Whats your point that still don't change the outcome as of now Blu-ray out selling HD-DVD 2-1 & has better studio support.The BD exclusive library only getting bigger everyday with the release of Ghost Rider this week i curious to see the sales number from that this week along.

  15.6.2007 03:48 #12

• hughjars

  Originally posted by NexGen76:Whats your point - Yeah riiiiiight NexGen76, the 'point' is sooooo hard to grasp, huh?
  
  Originally posted by NexGen76: that still don't change the outcome as of now Blu-ray out selling HD-DVD 2-1 - Actually according to Neilson it's 60:40 in BD's favour, not 2:1.
  
  .....and now even Sony admit that those ratios and percentage leads this early in things turns out to be meaningless, the war hasn't really even started yet.
  
  Pity it has left their fanclub that are adament they're the most significant things ever looking rather silly tho, eh?
  
  Quote: & has better studio support.
  The BD exclusive library only getting bigger everyday with the release of Ghost Rider this week i curious to see the sales number from that this week along. - LMAO.
  
  Ghost Rider (a poor movie at best anyways) is coming to HD DVD.
  
  Once again your claims about a BD exclusive title turns out to be wrong and the title is available on HD DVD somewhere in the world (which means that HD DVD's region free everytime status allows all HD DVD owners to use it.)
  
  http://translate.google.com/translate?u=...Flanguage_tools

  15.6.2007 09:31 #13

• Unfocused

  Lower the price all you want. Until there is one format, or both formats play equally on whatever device I may purchase, I don't care what price any of the hardware is, I'm not bitting until then.

  31.7.2007 01:10 #14