Toshiba Deploys New HD DVD Marketing Initiatives ...

niennumb1

Sony's response prediction:

"But.... we're freakin' Sony here, people!!!! And um.... we'll... we'll give you another free mail in movie free with the purchase of our player! And we'll give you an HDMI cable free too! PLEASE?! Price is nothing! Bluray is the best! Come see! <MSRP still $299>"

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fmw

This isn't much of a marketing initiative. It is just a price decrease and an addition to the advertising budget. I don't think it will make a bit of difference.

Dare

I wasn't talking about the last week. I was talking about the last year.

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Qbfinest83

MAN I hope your right if the MSRP price are 149, 199, 299 I thope they drop down to 99, 149, 249 before my brithday on March 3. I really want to get the HD30

Lee Stewart

DING!

Round 4 begins . . . .. the fight is not over.

stevenmh

I'd love to be wrong, but I believe this is too little, too late. Price does not matter when your product isn't attractive. I can get a VHS player real cheap, but I'm not interested. People simply don't want to have two movies players per TV. When there were 3 studios supporting HD DVD, it made people wonder which format to choose. Now that it's down to 2, and rumors of those two going neutral or Blu, it just doesn't make sense for someone to pick HD DVD right now.

It's an unfortunate fact that the consumer has not spoken in this war. It has never been about the consumer. The biggest swings in this war have revolved around companies bribing each other back and forth, and absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with technical merit or consumer interest.

Toshiba should have made these price adjustments on Nov. 1. They should have lit a fire under the studios during 1Q07 when the releases stopped and HD DVD supporters started turning purple. The software promotion should have been 5 in store immediately instead of mail away, so customers could get whatever they wanted and so they would be counted as sales. MS should have bundled a black HD DVD add-on with the Elite, and dropped the price of the AO to $129 on Nov. 1. Maybe, just maybe, this would have created a user base large enough that studios would be forced to make a decision based on the long term outlook of the formats rather than on a backstage bidding war. Some of you point out that Toshiba can't control what MS or the studios do. I agree, and therein lies the problem. Toshiba can't win a format war alone, and they've had some lousy partners on their side.

Toshiba couldn't get their partners to do the things that made sense when HD DVD was holding its own. What makes them think their partners are going to continue to support them after a death blow? Paramount and Universal don't care about the MSRP of the A3, they care about the size of the bag of money that Sony can pass them under the table. Last one to switch might not get a bag.

What Toshiba can do to help ME, one of their supporters through the war, is to bring an affordable 2.0 BD player to market. Prolonging the death spiral isn't helpful.

Bravestime

It would be hard to believe even this price decrease can sway WB to even contemplate going neutral again considering they made the comment of wanting to end this format war. That would only extend the format war, so I don't see WB going neutral or HD-DVD exclusive.

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popyto

I don't think at the moment anything can be too little too late well not until tosh loose its other studios, both formats are very niche at the moment and most AAA titles are just breaking the 100K barrier for a launch week, until one side can start breaching the million mark for an AAA title I will not be convinced that either format has reached mass acceptance.

Blue_Red

I don't think Toshiba is trying to win, just stay in the game to force the dual players.
The lower price could hurt them, a lot sales people work off commission, they'll say to the costumers HD DVD is going down and clearing out after the WB move, they'll mention studio support to sell the entry level BD player instead to make more commission.
I heard them mention studio support to customers already just hanging around the stores.

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hippy fascist

If RRP is lowered toshiba will also lower their price to wholesalers

It will be tosh taking a hit on profit, not retailers (WM only paid $50 a piece for those $99 players remember)

If anything this makes a salesman's life easier as it opens the players up to the upscaler market.

I've spent the last 2 years working in sales (albiet on the corporate level) Trust me, this will be a non issue and salesmen will jump at the chance

cbcdesign

All of you who are saying it's too little too late, yes it will be if you are HD DVD supporters and are throwing in the towel because of the Warner move. When your back is against a wall that is when you come out fighting and I am delighted that Toshiba are continuing to fight. This is exactly what I wanted to hear. A firm commitment from them.

HD DVD is a "Finished" format and unlike Blu-ray who know their product isn't ready HD DVD is in a great position to really pull out all the stops. I hope Toshiba start fighting fire with fire and point out the problems Blu-ray still has to overcome, particularly the profile problem and the lack of HD audio decoders in many players.

Lastly, HD DVD is in no worse a position in terms of studio numbers than it was before the Paramount shift. It still has the support of two major studios and is in a much better position to press large numbers of disks than Blu-ray will be for some time.

I am very pleased.

Deja Vu

I was in BB the other day and ovewheard a customer saying Blu was the only HD out there. I straightened him out with what HD DVD was all about and told him if he wanted it all he needed a player from both formats. The salesperson stood to the side nodding in agreement with everything I said which really took the wind out of this consumer's sails. Since he had an Xbox 360 I recommended the Addon (he's really cheap and the HD DVD players in BB -Canadian location - are pretty expensive) and the PS3 for BD. The last thing he said to the salesperson was "where are the Addons?"

Its amazing that Toshiba can keep up to BD on standalone sales. Just go into any retail store and all they're talking about is BD. The HD DVD players are in a corner somewhere with no one mentioning them. They literally have to sell themselves! If Toshiba can change this then maybe it can start to turn things around. With the new pricing I can't see any reason by BD owners wouldn't be buying an HD DVD player for those great exclusives. Toshiba needs an iron clad contract with Universal and Paramount for exclusivity for the next three years and then it needs to let EVERYONE know about it! Time to start writing big cheques!

One last thought for all those nay sayers. Toshiba does have a support base right now - its obviously not huge, but it is there. Every player it continues to sell increases that base, which is encouraging to the studios, and potentially keeps HD DVD in the game. It may never do as well as BD, but it may stay in this and ultimately that keeps Sony from an all out victory and gives the consumer choice with "honest" pricing.

Who knows the fine details of the contracts each format has with its supporting studios. If Paramount can get out under specific circumstances then maybe Warners can too. Bring on those combo only releases at a DVD price and really stick it to the BD

Selling HD DVD players as good upconverting players at an upconverting player price is very, very smart. Now it needs to sell combo only releases (no DVD) at a DVD price to complete the equation.

Cheers,

Grant

Baron79

Exactly! If you thought HD DVD was the better choice in the first place , why turn now? I think Toshiba can pull through , and I am willing to find out.

thrlride

with them cutting the mrsp of the players and mentioning the upconversion aspect they are taking all risk out of buying the player. What they need to do now is ensure the HD DVD software sells instead of the players being used solely as upconverts at this point.

mfabien

... and salesmen at BB work on salary, not commission. Could be other big stores not paying commissions.

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