While Blu-ray titles have been outselling HD DVD since the beginning
of the year, the HD DVD Promotion Group has been quick to point out that they dominate the HD set-top market. With cheaper Blu-ray
players starting to ship, this sales gap has started to close. According to Video Business, Blu-ray players are
already selling better than HD DVD players at some retailers.
At Ultimate Electronics and Abt Electronics, Toshiba’s
second-generation players are still the best-selling individual models, but collectively, Blu-ray players have been outselling HD DVD
Toshiba models in recent weeks.
At Ultimate, the shift began in June when Sony rolled out Blu-ray’s cheapest set-top player to
date, the $499 BDP-S300. Ultimate also carries second-generation Samsung and Pioneer Blu-ray models.
“It’s a slight lead, not a
huge margin, but we expected this to happen as [Ultimate] is selling three HD DVD players, versus five Blu-ray players. There is a depth
point of view now,” said Matt Duda, Ultimate director of merchandising for video. “But there is no single Blu-ray player overtaking
Toshiba’s models.”
The article also points out that set-top Blu-ray player sales could be even higher, but
manufacturers are having a hard time meeting demand. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here.
