Toshiba slashes HD DVD player sales forecast by half
By John Pospisil
Toshiba has slashed its 2007 sales forecast for high-definition HD DVD players in the US by almost half, just days after the North American HD DVD Promotional Group (NAHDPG) gloated that HD DVD was thrashing Blu-ray in the format war, with 60% market share.
NAHDPG attributed the “success” of HD DVD, in part, to Toshiba dropping the price of its low-end player from $499 to $399. According to NAHDPG, this move caused HD DVD player sales to double in the month of April and double again the first week of May.
So it’s now very interesting that Toshiba has lowered its 2007 calendar-year US sales forecast for HD DVD players from 1.8 million to just 1 million. Toshiba had also previously expected to sell 3 million HD DVD players worldwide.
“Obviously, we are going to have to (also) lower our previous global estimate,” a Toshiba executive told Reuters.
Many commentators have speculated that Blu-ray would have a major advantage over HD DVD because Blu-ray is integrated into Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) gaming/home entertainment console. However, it seems that because of poor sales, the PS3 factor hasn’t made a significant difference.
The head of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Ken Graffeo, also believes that when people do buy a PS3, they’re buying it for games, not movies.
“Consumers … are simply not buying it for watching as many high-definition movies as Sony said they would,” he said at a recent Toshiba product launch.
Toshiba’s decision to revise its sales forecasts reveals that while HD DVD may be leading the format war, it’s doing so from relatively low numbers. It also means that it’s way too early to tell which format is going to come out in front.
The PS3 factor may yet kick in; sales may pick up, and as more Blu-ray movies become available, more PS3 owners may begin using the PS3 to watch movies.
If I were the NAHDPG I would wait a little longer before I started gloating…
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