Toshiba’s desperate attempt to save HD-DVD will fail
January 14, 2008Toshiba has announced 50% price cuts in their two cheapest HD-DVD players, bringing the low-end model down to $150. That’s half what I paid for my HD-DVD player a few months back.
The new price makes an HD-DVD player well under half the cost of the cheapest Blu-Ray, but the content just isn’t there. Anybody who walks into a store today can see with their own eyes that there’s a much better selection of movies on Blu-Ray than on HD-DVD. That would be the deal-breaker for anybody seriously considering an HD-DVD player today.
Toshiba of course is spinning the price cuts as an agressive promotion to help their format gain the upper hand in the next-gen war. But I think it’s more like a fire-sale to get rid of what is now essentially obsolete hardware. And I expect most consumers will see it that way as well.