$198 too expensive? HD-DVD player on sale for $99 at Wal-mart

[rocketpig]

davygee said:

kn said:
An interesting side note here... Sony is most certainly still losing money on the PS3 regardless of the SKU. Why is this? Because it is the same price as the current cheapest Blu-Ray drives and they are reportedly at best break even or losing money on those. If that is indeed the case, they still have to factor in the Cell, memory, controller, and so on in the PS3 when considering the total cost.

Regardless, this leaves Sony fighting on two fronts: The PS3 (a trojan-horse Blu-ray player) and Blu-Ray standalone. I don't think Sony is going to get into a price war on both fronts meaning I doubt we see a $299 or less Blu-Ray player any time soon.

If Toshiba decided to bet it all, right here, right now, they would take Sony-sized losses on the A3 and move em out cheap enough to sell multi-millions over the holidays. There is no doubt that Sony will be moving 2-3 million PS3 systems globally over the holidays. HD-DVD has to accomplish the same and they aren't going to do it with $200 players as J6P won't spend that kind of coin just to get a player...

I don't agree.  Sony has always been an expensive brand.  And although I do reckon that Sony is making a loss on the PS3 at the moment.  I certainly don't think they are making a loss on the standalone Blu-ray players.  Have you also noticed that Samsung is starting to price highe...and Toshiba in general is pricing lower.

What Toshiba need to watch out for is the cheapening of their brand overall.  Once this happens, they can forget selling their more expensive higher end models and will end up selling only budget players, TV's and laptops across the board.

Isn't Sharp due to release a budget Blu-ray player soon as well.  I reckon we will see a $249-$299 Blu-ray player sooner rather than later. 

 

Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung are all offering their entry-price Blu-ray player at $499. That alone shows that the costs are still high on those units. Third party manufacturers won't take a loss on hardware to push a format, it doesn't help them in any way down the road. Sony has incentive to drop price below cost, which is what we're seeing Toshiba do (and consequently, no one else is pushing HD-DVD hardware right now). So, it seems that Sony is content to lose their ass on the PS3 while keeping their stand-alone stuff above cost (hence their price parity with Samsung and Panasonic).

Meanwhile, Toshiba is in full bleed-money mode and offering $98 players today. Then there's that Chinese company that will be offering $200 players over the holidays in Wal-mart and other big box retailers.

As I've always said, this war is far from over. Toshiba is really going all-out this holiday season and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the end. If Toshiba can move 1m players this holiday, it would be a real coup for the format.