Quote:
MrPorterhouse wrote:
 What I don't quite understand is what momentum? The standalone players for HD DVD come in at 49.3% of the market, and when you add in the PS3, HD DVD only has about 15% of the players. The HD DVD standalones used to be at something like 70% market share, so HD DVD standalones have been losing momentum in market share.
With discs, HD DVD has been steadily losing ground week after week, pulling only a 36% share for 2007. It's hard to find momentum for red when I look at the data. How do they figure the positive momentum? What data I'm I missing? |
I have a PS3 but I can say that I am one of the minority that bought it as a Bluray player first and foremost. Most sales were for people using it as a game console, in fact I will say majority of the sales were for that. So I wouldn't say if you included the PS3 it would bring Toshiba and HD DVD down to 15% of the market, but I do agree it decreases their numbers some. It does however provide a future BD customer base, which is undeniable, but the PS3, as good as it is, isn't the real deciding factor in all of this.
It is interesting that disc sales are reported as declining while the second half of 2007 saw the gap of available titles narrow between HD DVD and BD. That was some momentum, and of all the people I know, even those that have both formats, most seem to buy HD DVD.
I'm not trying to be argumentative, just say that HD DVD was gaining a lot of ground in 2007 and if Warner hadn't announced this, it could have been an entirely different landscape by the end of 2008. Disney was even teetering at one point, so yes there was some momentum on HD DVD's side for certain.
As far as players, I'm set and although I too want to see one format, I will snatch up clearance sales on discs for whichever format untimately goes under. One thing to remember is how long it took Beta to die off. It was several years before they were completely gone, so we're still not at an end to this yet, but this was the biggest event to date in the 'war'.
I expect to see some major price slashes on HD DVD players as well as more movie deals, but to consumers this will look like either clearance or a last ditch effort, and they may not be wrong on thinking that. This is my opinion, but the only thing that could change things now would be for player sales to jump to 70%, which is unlikely, or a major studio like say Disney to change formats or even start distributing on both formats, and I don't see that happening. There could be one final trump card out there though, but if it is thrown out on the table and played, it's a sign this is all over and that was the last resort.
If Sony does win, I won't be upset, I think we need one format. I just don't want to see prices go back up like they could.