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

[Delusional]

rocketpig said:

davygee said:

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.

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.

First thing, you can't really say Toshiba may be cheapening their brand.  There's no comparison because no other HD DVD player out.  Maybe in fact it is very cheap to manufacture so Toshiba is offering at a premium already at $199.99.  They are not blu-ray and you can't use blu-ray prices as comparison as to whether or not Toshiba is low-balling.  That's the goodness of HD DVD drives, cheaper to manufacture and that's a fact.

Second, you don't know if Toshiba is bleeding money.  Maybe it cost them $50 to make, they sold it to retailers at $100, kept the MSRP at $299.99, retailers sell it between $199-299 for a 100% mark up.  Walmart sell it for under $99, maybe Walmart is the only one losing a dollar per HD DVD player sold.  No one has announced the cost to make a HD DVD player yet, but we all know it costs Sony hundreds of dollars to make a PS3.  Fuh Yuan had initially said it was rumored to sell 2Million HD DVD drives for the player to Walmart.  From what I read, those drives only cost $50 dollars...so...Just because Toyota sells Camry for cheaper than a BMW, it doesn't mean it's a "cheap" brand since it's so reliable and popular.