Sony CEO declares current state of Blu-ray/HD DVD war a "stalemate"
In a surprising turn of events, Sony’s CEO, Howard Stringer, has stepped back from his previous declarations of victory in the HD format war.
Where just eight months ago Sony was declaring victory, Mr. Stringer’s attitude has suddenly changed. According to an interview with the Associated Press:
“We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides,” Stringer said.
The timing also comes on the heels of a large push by the HD-DVD camp last weekend where the price of Toshiba’s entry level player, the the HD-A2, went as low as $99 at some stores. Sources report that Toshiba moved as many as 90,000 units last weekend alone, greatly closing the gap of installed user bases between the formats.
With the all important “Black Friday” sales approaching (for our non-US readers, the day after Thanksgiving is referred to as “Black Friday” due to all the sales), it won’t be surprising to see these two formats struggling even harder to be the dominant contender. A leaked ad from Best Buy shows that the Toshiba HD-A3 will be on sale for $199.99 and will include seven free movies. The same site is showing that Sony’s Blu-ray BDPS300 will be selling for $499 with only one free movie and a $100 gift card rebate.
Toshiba’s aggressive pricing may be what finally determines the winner in this war if Sony doesn’t step up their pricing to match them. The two camps can argue technical specifications all day long, but the consumer’s wallet is what will finally make the purchasing decision.
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November 9th, 2007
The Blu-ray camp keeps saying their format is better. How much better? 5% better? 10%? 20%? 50%? 100%? 200%? 500%?
People can line up Blu-ray and HD DVD videos side-by-side with the best TV and sound systems, and most people can’t tell a darn different between the two.
Blu-ray is definitely not 100% better.
However, I can tell you how much different the prices are: their prices: The cheapest HD DVD player right now is $129. The cheapest Blu-ray player, which is a PS3, is $399. That’s 300% price difference.
Blu-ray is 300% more expensive than HD DVD.
I don’t care what the Blu-ray guys say. I’m not paying 300% more for something that I can’t even see a darn difference.
November 10th, 2007
Sony is bragging about how it’s discs can hold 50 GB of space, but the HD DVD isn’t far behind–it can hold 45 GB with new triple-layer technology. Of course, space doesn’t matter for the typical customer, so, once again, it’s price that will matter.