Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/30/npd_group_hddvd/
HD DVD fights back in the US
But not for long?
30th January 2008 13:27 GMT
HD DVD managed to cut itself a rather larger slice of US hi-def player sales in the third week of January, according to one analyst group's figures. But a rival market watcher still believes that HD DVD will be dead before 2009.
US Standalone HD Player Sales
Source: NPD
According to the NPD Group, HD DVD increased its overall sales percentage against rival Blu-ray from 7.4 per cent in the week ended 12 January to 34.3 per cent during the seven days ended 19 January. While this sounds promising for the Toshiba-backed format, the percentage figures still only translate into 8639 HD DVD units and 16,496 Blu-ray units, during the week ended 19 January, according to NPD numbers cited (http://www.thedigitalbits.com/) by website The Digital Bits
It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly what caused HD DVD’s sudden sales increase, but analyst house Gartner believes that Toshiba’s recent HD DVD player price-cut may have had an impact.
“Toshiba's price-cutting may prolong HD DVD's life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will inflict fatal damage on the format," a Gartner analyst recently forecast. "Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be over”.
Toshiba’s not going without a fight though. It’s spent $2.7m on a 30 second Super Bowl advert to advertise its new HD DVD player prices.
This week, UK retail store chain Woolworths declared Blu-ray the HD winner (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/28/woolworths_exclusively_backing_blu_ray/), by announcing that it'll end its HD DVD sales in March.