| akuma587 said: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/09/wal-mart-wont-c.html Wal-Mart has opted not to carry Ventura's $200 SHD7000 HD-DVD player, which could have pre-emptively won the next-gen format war, beating Blu-Ray to death with the nerfbat of cheap. Why would Wal-Mart turn its nose up at such an amazing piece of technology? Here are my tentative hypotheses: (i) It's such appalling trash even Wal-Mart won't carry it. This is extremely unlikely. (ii) Someone licked it and died. Some call lead a pollutant. We call it life. (iii) Wal-Mart's story, that it favors "leading consumer brands," is correct. Not so: Wally carries Ventura DVD players. Or (iv) the big box knows it has the power to choose a winner in the format war, and hasn't yet decided between the two (or has picked Blu-Ray). Wal-Mart makes money selling disks, not players. My dollar is on (iv). Cynical? Yes. Wrong? No. Note: Here is the quote found elsewhere online “We have no plans to have Venturer in our stores this holiday,” Wal-Mart merchandise spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said. “We will continue to offer the best values on popular HD DVD and Blu-ray products from leading consumer brands like Sony, Samsung, Philips, Toshiba and RCA.” |
You're right that WM makes money off discs, but DVD sales are slowing, and HD won't fly until this war is over, so I see no reasonfor them to help HDDVD prolong this. OTOH there is choice v. WM saw the deal w/ Paramount and offer to WB and is holding out for their own bribe.
