eHDMI
04-14-2007, 07:27 PM
Looks like Sony was premature in their declaration of victory in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war. Samsung's announcement of their dual format player is evidence that cracks are starting to form in the BD camp.
At this time last year, Samsung was proclaiming publicly that they were BD exclusive and had no plans to develop, manufacture and market a dual format player despite rumors to the contrary. Now they have formally announced their dual format player and have not ruled out selling an HD-DVD only player.
Why that change of heart?
Perhaps it is due to Sony's sales of the PS3 at prices substantially below what standalone BD players were selling for, cutting BD CE manufacturers such as Samsung and Panasonic off at the knees, as sales of standalone BD players are anemic at best. Samsung clearly can't be happy with this result. I can't imagine that Panasonic and Pioneer are happy with their sales either.
The second reason is the Nielsen Videoscan sales numbers released by Sony which show how few discs of each format are selling. Despite the sale of over a million PS3 consoles, well fewer than a million BD discs have been sold since the sale of the first BD player, the Samsung BDP-1000, back in June 2006. The best that BD could do was Casino Royale, at less than 40,000 discs despite Sony's claim that they shipped 100,000 of those discs.
Many titles have sold less than 1000 copies, even some big titles such as Chicago. HD-DVD sales were comparable despite the fact that HD-DVD has sold somewhere under 250,000 players. Batman Begins and The Departed on HD-DVD have sold similar numbers as CR.
Given the number of players sold by each camp, one would have expected BD to far outsell HD yet they haven't. The attach rate of HD discs far surpasses that of BD.
With the recent sales triggered by the reduction by Toshiba of their A2 player to a MRSP of $399 and the upcoming release of The Matrix on HD-DVD only as well as the flurry of recently announced HD-DVD titles, it is not unreasonable to believe that HD-DVD sales will soon match or exceed those of BD, even with the BD exclusive releases of Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2.
What is clear is that, despite the protestations of Sony and Fox to the contrary, the format war is not only not over but far from it. In fact, one can see the two formats existing side by side for years. It would be difficult to see were that to be the case, why BD exclusive studios such as Fox and Disney would want to remain so and ignore sales of their content to HD-DVD buyers, losing out on significant profits. Remember that Fox and Disney also supported the failed DIVX format as well and then supported DVD.
Maybe they have made a similar mistake in this format battle? Should they switch, this war may in fact end, with BD on the losing side.
Source (http://www.tvpredictions.com/whip041407.htm)
At this time last year, Samsung was proclaiming publicly that they were BD exclusive and had no plans to develop, manufacture and market a dual format player despite rumors to the contrary. Now they have formally announced their dual format player and have not ruled out selling an HD-DVD only player.
Why that change of heart?
Perhaps it is due to Sony's sales of the PS3 at prices substantially below what standalone BD players were selling for, cutting BD CE manufacturers such as Samsung and Panasonic off at the knees, as sales of standalone BD players are anemic at best. Samsung clearly can't be happy with this result. I can't imagine that Panasonic and Pioneer are happy with their sales either.
The second reason is the Nielsen Videoscan sales numbers released by Sony which show how few discs of each format are selling. Despite the sale of over a million PS3 consoles, well fewer than a million BD discs have been sold since the sale of the first BD player, the Samsung BDP-1000, back in June 2006. The best that BD could do was Casino Royale, at less than 40,000 discs despite Sony's claim that they shipped 100,000 of those discs.
Many titles have sold less than 1000 copies, even some big titles such as Chicago. HD-DVD sales were comparable despite the fact that HD-DVD has sold somewhere under 250,000 players. Batman Begins and The Departed on HD-DVD have sold similar numbers as CR.
Given the number of players sold by each camp, one would have expected BD to far outsell HD yet they haven't. The attach rate of HD discs far surpasses that of BD.
With the recent sales triggered by the reduction by Toshiba of their A2 player to a MRSP of $399 and the upcoming release of The Matrix on HD-DVD only as well as the flurry of recently announced HD-DVD titles, it is not unreasonable to believe that HD-DVD sales will soon match or exceed those of BD, even with the BD exclusive releases of Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2.
What is clear is that, despite the protestations of Sony and Fox to the contrary, the format war is not only not over but far from it. In fact, one can see the two formats existing side by side for years. It would be difficult to see were that to be the case, why BD exclusive studios such as Fox and Disney would want to remain so and ignore sales of their content to HD-DVD buyers, losing out on significant profits. Remember that Fox and Disney also supported the failed DIVX format as well and then supported DVD.
Maybe they have made a similar mistake in this format battle? Should they switch, this war may in fact end, with BD on the losing side.
Source (http://www.tvpredictions.com/whip041407.htm)