For those holding back for HD players to tumble in price, it looks like there is potential for a price war to start between Toshiba and Sony with both expecting to launch lower cost players over the coming few weeks. While Blu-ray is doing well as a result of the PS3, when it comes to dedicated high definition set-top players, HD DVD account for 60% of this market. Going by the US HD DVD promotional group, the entry level price for HD DVD players has hit $299 and HD DVD title sales have reached an all time high in May with over 75,000 HD DVD titles sold in the last week of May alone.
When Toshiba dropped its HD DVD pricing to bring the HD-A2 model down from $499 to $399, its weekly player sales had doubled in April. A player promotion in May caused another double in its weekly sales, with sales continuing to climb. So far, over 150,000 dedicated HD DVD consumer players have been sold. On Amazon, all three Toshiba HD DVD players were among the top 3 selling DVD player/recorders on Monday morning. Even at this time of writing, the HD-A2 is still at the #1 spot with the highest ranking dedicated Blu-ray player at the #19 spot on this top sellers list.
Further info can be read in this Smarthouse article.
