HD DVD players pass 750,000 unit sales

[StarshipTrooper]

HD DVD players pass 750,000 unit sales

Consumer Electronics

By Mark Raby

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 13:18

Los Angeles (CA) - The HD DVD Promotional Group today announced that over 750,000 players have been sold to date.

That's significantly more than the introductory year of the DVD. In that format's first year, just over 300,000 DVD players were sold. However, it falls significantly behind Blu-ray Disc players.

The HD DVD group cites retailer reports. The 750,000 unit mark includes sales of standalone HD DVD players as well as the HD DVD add-on to the Xbox 360, which until recently was the least expensive device to play the high-def format.

According to the HD DVD Promotional Group, standalone players have outsold standalone Blu-ray devices, which excludes the Playstation 3. The Digital Entertainment Group agrees, reporting that standalone Blu-ray player sales have not even reached 200,000 units yet. However, when the PS3 is factored in, Blu-ray dwarfs its competitor.

According to the Financial Times, PS3 lifetime sales have reached 3.7 million units. This has led to Blu-ray movies consistently outselling HD DVD titles, usually at a monthly rate of two-to-one.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35008/118/

[Squonk63]

This format war is really starting to hack me off. I know people want to make money and promote their own standard, but come on! The first manufacturer to successfully market a hybrid that can record and play ALL known formats (and, hee hee, in all regions), will probably dominate the landscape and collect all of the coin.

This assumes that they flood the marketplace with such technology on the cheap. Until then, I am sitting this one out.

[narius]

What I can't figure out is whether this is a claim of victory or an admission of defeat.

DVD came out long time ago when technology moves a lot slower. There is no point comparing to it.

If you look at OTHER consumer electronics (Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, DS, Ipods, and even the PS3), 750k units a year is really NOTHING.

In fact, the PS3 is the SLOW seller in that world.

[D'Ger]

I bought the HD-A3 model this past Friday. Best Buy had it on sale for $199, with a mail-in rebate for 5 free movies (not the best selection to choose from, but "The Thing" was one of them). I then got the new STAR TREK HD set, since Best Buy had it on sale this week. So far, I am very pleased in both the player and the TREK set.

Dan