cybershark Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 HD DVD outselling Blu-ray in Europe Group claims 74 percent market share for stand-alone players FRANKFURT - HD DVD video players have outsold rival standard Blu-ray players by a three-to-one margin in Europe's main markets so far this year, according to a lobby group. The European HD DVD Promotional Group claimed it had 74 percent market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland for stand-alone players, citing sales figures it commissioned from market research group GfK. GfK said it has not published research commissioned from the trade group. Story continues below ↓advertisement The HD DVD group, led by Toshiba Corp. and backed by Microsoft Corp. and film studios including Warner Bros., declined to give figures for how many players it had shipped to retail outlets in Europe. The figures were for stand-alone players only and did not include sales of games consoles such as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, which contains a Blu-ray player. The Sony-led Blu-ray lobby group includes Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Apple Inc. and Dell Inc. Its discs, which are outselling HD DVD discs, can store more information and special features but the technology is more expensive. Toshiba cut prices for its HD-E1 HD DVD player to $549 in Europe and $299 in the United States last month. Sony's BDP-S300 Blu-ray player costs $499 in the United States, and its BDP-S1E European version has recently gone on sale, with prices starting at around 900 euros. Other Blu-ray players have been on sale in Europe for longer. According to its Web site, Blu-ray is an optical disc format developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video. It claims to offer more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs. High-definition Digital Versatile Disc The HD DVD format claims to offer six times the picture resolution of normal DVDs and enhanced audio, according to its Web site. Toshiba's spokesman for the European HD DVD group, Olivier Van Wynendaele, told Reuters that profit margins for its HD DVD players were comparable to those for its DVD players in Europe. He declined to say whether Toshiba was selling players at a loss in the United States. A mass market for high-definition video is still some way off. Blu-ray and HD DVD are battling for domination in a war reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax battle of the 1970s and 1980s. That war was won by VHS after about a decade. Steve Nickerson, a Warner Bros spokesman for the HD DVD group, said still-high prices were partly to blame. "You can't get to mass-market consumption until you get to mass-market pricing," he told Reuters. But Nickerson said the high-definition video market was developing faster than the DVD market had. "If we take a pragmatic approach, and understand we're still only selling to innovators, we are ahead of the DVD curve." Van Wynendaele said surveys had shown 70 percent of consumers would be prepared to buy a high-definition player once prices fall below $200. Asked when Toshiba would cut prices to that level, he answered: "I can't say if it's likely this year, but it will happen, yes." Nickerson added: "It took nearly four years for that price point to be achieved in DVD ... anything inside three years would be significantly improved compared to the DVD." Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason S. Global Moderator Posted July 12, 2007 Global Moderator Share Posted July 12, 2007 and tomorrow blu-ray association says theyre winning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrCheese Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 yea but last I heard, blu-ray was winning software wise, i.e movies. This is most likely because of the PS3, which they discount. I realise its hard to work out how many people brought the PS3 for bluray tho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichi Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 The figures were for stand-alone players only and did not include sales of games consoles such as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, which contains a Blu-ray player. Which makes the figures pretty much useless :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowRanger13 Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Yeah for standalone players... Everyone that wants Blu-ray gets a game system while there at it (PS3). If it was movie sales then I would be impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samboini Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 The universe is going to explode soon because according to the laws of physics no two companies can simultaneously outsell each other. Hmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrCheese Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 "If you count the biggest selling blu-ray player that also happens to be a games machine, we're losing like 50-1, but if you pretend that doesn't exist, we're winning 3-1!!" Twisting facts ftl :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L3thal Veteran Posted July 12, 2007 Veteran Share Posted July 12, 2007 When I read the title, I thought 1 of two things, 1) Blu-Ray is getting owned by the EU anti-trust commission, 2) HD-DVD must have twisted the sales figure around somehow. Apparently, number 2 is what occurred. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourjays Veteran Posted July 12, 2007 Veteran Share Posted July 12, 2007 I don't think "who's winning" should be based on hardware sales. Not with the PS3 as part of the equation. Who's to say whether people are buying PS3s for gaming only, watching Blu-Ray only, or a mixture of both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowRanger13 Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 I don't think "who's winning" should be based on hardware sales. Not with the PS3 as part of the equation. Who's to say whether people are buying PS3s for gaming only, watching Blu-Ray only, or a mixture of both? Yup thats exactly why they don't count PS3 in hardware sales, but really because PS3 can be used as one and many have been sold really it should be based on disc sales not hardware. Last time I checked Blu-ray is leading in disc sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhav Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 They have not included PS3s lol...and yes hardware sales doesn't equate to HD-DVD "winning" - more movies are sold on Blu-ray in Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L3thal Veteran Posted July 12, 2007 Veteran Share Posted July 12, 2007 ^Which, keeping the "stats" above in mind, does technically mean that Blu-Ray users purchase more movies than HD-DVD owners yet there are less Blu-Ray player owners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VWW Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 The European HD DVD Promotional Group ... citing sales figures it commissioned from market research group GfK.GfK said it has not published research commissioned from the trade group. That's just wierd! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leddy Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 I think, at the end of the day, no one really cares about blu-ray OR HD-DVD at the moment. Compatibility is a sheet to the wind at the moment, and there's nothing really wrong with DVDs just yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharos Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 and there's nothing really wrong with DVDs just yet. My 42" HDTV seems to think otherwise :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaPrime Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Yeah it's rather useless since that only counts standalone players and not the PS3. And while PS3 isn't exactly a standalone player, it's affecting sales enough to grab a 2:1 marketshare over HD-DVD. Also some people grab a PS3 over a standalone because they're the same price, sometimes cheaper over here. Here are HMV UK movie sales from last month: http://forums.highdefdigest.com/forumdisplay.php?f=43 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Damn... The Thing is a quality film though. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 That makes sense, I went into HMV and they were moreless only selling Blu-Ray! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TruckWEB Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 there's nothing really wrong with DVDs just yet. You probably don't own a big screen HDTV to say that.... Even with upscaling to 1080p, DVD is no match to the quality of picture from HD-DVD or Blu-ray. And yes, I can see the difference with my 50" Sony SXRD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdsams Veteran Posted July 13, 2007 Veteran Share Posted July 13, 2007 I think, at the end of the day, no one really cares about blu-ray OR HD-DVD at the moment. Compatibility is a sheet to the wind at the moment, and there's nothing really wrong with DVDs just yet. once they get a consumer drive out that will play both...no one will care and both HD-dvd and blue ray will sit idle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scumdogmillionaire Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 i just want this crap to end so i know which one to buy. i don't care which one, really, i just want it to be done. i had a betamax and i'm not going through that again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayepecks Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 Ommgggzzz, th3 form@t wr iz ovr!!!!!!!11one (No, I don't dislike HD DVD, but com'n... these are always the comments you get with these articles :)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 once they get a consumer drive out that will play both...no one will care and both HD-dvd and blue ray will sit idle Agreed. I think LG have already released a hybrid drive in America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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