Blu-ray outselling HD DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Paul Arnette]

Yes, this jives with the HMR article, but what does it mean? Particularly, revenue for whom? The manufacturer or the retailer? Of course Blu-Ray would generate more revenue when the Toshiba HD-A1 is reportedly being sold for a loss.

Look. What I am saying and what I have a problem with is that this article gives the impression that Blu-Ray is winning, when its clearly not. What I am not saying is that HD DVD is winning. Right now there are no winners, only losers in this forwat war.

 

[Harminder]

6 week sales figures are hardly telling of a particular products performance. Returns and exchanges should be factored in as well. As a future (mid-to-late September) electronics retail store owner, when I was choosing which products I should have on my store shelves, I took a look at which products were selling faster than others in their particular product lines (ex. HDTVs, Hi-Def players, DVD players, MP3 players, receivers, etc.) from my suppliers. They had quarterly and bi-annual figures, that is where I could really see the differences.

(of course, forums like the HTF also help with which products to choose from )

 

[dpippel]

Revenue and profit are not the same thing.

 

[Austan]

Got it... It took a while, but I think I cracked the "DaVinci Code".
but if you calculate the monetary value spent, then Blu-Ray buyers spent more money buying less BP1000 players.

Good news for HD-DVD:

• it still has a market lead in # of units sold
• HD-A1 is clearing out selling BP1000 after initial surge

Good news for Blu-Ray:

• Finally on the market
• "Official Un-Official" launch is still in November

Bad news for HD-DVD:

• over all sales # relatively low

Bad news for Blu-Ray:

• poor reviews of BP1000 & software

Fuzzy math: 4:3 ratio = 4 HD-DVD vs 3 Blu-Ray players. After selling 3 each, HD-DVD has 1 more player. so 1 out of 3 = 33% more.
4 HD-DVD x $500 each = $2000 vs 3 Blu-Ray x $1000 each = $3000. There's a $1000 difference so it should be a 50% more revenue but we have to calculate for HD-XA1 sales also, so thats how it comes to 42% more revenue for Blu-Ray.

 

[Cees Alons]

In this case, like in the case of many statistics, there seems nothing wrong with the figures. However, one should never use figures to prove something they don't imply.

In this case, I'm not sure if the English word "outselling" is normally used to describe net turnover or number of items.

And whatever way it is used here, it should not lead to wrong conclusions either based on its regular use or a suggested meaning of the word.

To me it looks like the net turnover of the Samsung player in the indicated period was higher than that of the Toshiba. That could indeed lead to the conclusion that it was more profitable for retailers to try to sell the Samsung than the HD DVD player.

It can NOT be used (to mention one specific conclusion) to conclude that the coverage in households of the BD format is higher than of the HD DVD format (in fact, the same figures suggest that this isn't true), or that the BD movies have a better transfer than the HD DVD movies (this isn't supported at all by the figures one way or another).

Even proper statistics are only as good as they are applied.


Cees

 

[Seth=L]

Funny, Peter THX is still online and yet has posted nothing in response to the allegations against the thread name and material, very mature. At least he didn't start lashing out at other posters.

Seth=L

 

[AaronSCH]

I apologize for my earlier "digs" at the original poster. I realize it crossed the line of forum rules. But that headline irritated the hell out of me because of its false implication. What matters in this format war is the NUMBER OF UNITS SOLD. Everything else falls in line when there is greater saturation of one format over the other. Did someone conveniently forget the low-cost PS3 strategy? HD DVD is CLEARLY winning in total number of units sold which means it is currently out-selling the Blu-Ray player. If the overall dollars spent was less for the over-inflated and pricey Blu-Ray player, then this thing would really be over. That article is a mess and as journalistically inaccurate as The New York Times. Personally, I question the motivation of the editors of that publication.

 

[Cees Alons]

I know the use of the equivalent word in my own language, but please tell me: if a car dealer in the US would sell 1 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow during a certain week and 9 Ford Fiesta's, would he say to his wife "Ha, Rolls is outselling the Siesta!" and be correct?


Cees

 

[PeterTHX]

Seth, I always try to keep it civil.

Always hated the "my toaster is better than yours so *you* suck!" type arguments.
They're formats, not religions (at least not to me anyway)

I'm not surprised HD DVD is selling decently. It's cheaper and for the time being, has better picture quality. I've *always* thought VC-1 was a good idea (indeed, some accused me of cozying up to Microsoft).

But with the holiday season approaching, new players & studios coming before then, and the PS3 question, things can change in a heartbeat.

 

[PeterTHX]

BTW: that Boing Boing article is not true at all.

Sony would alienate their studio support if it was. Their literature and presentations would be toast. That's like saying the XBOX 360 add-on wont play HD DVD movies because the same HDCP restrictions apply. There is a LOT of confusion about what is AACS and what is BD+.

The PS3 will play: CDs, DVDs, upconverted DVDs (thru HDMI), BD movies (in 1080p thru HDMI, 1080i thru component), SACDs, and BD movies with Dolby TrueHD (with the ability for HDMI 1.3 pass-thru as well).

 

[BrettB]

I *think* they may have edited the article. I wasn't confused earlier but now I am.

Both Blu-ray and HD DVD hardware and software were available for the six weeks ended July 29.

Based on that time frame, Blu-ray led the next-generation market with a 54% share of hardware units sold and a 69% revenue share, according to NPD data.

-snip-

All told, there were 33% more HD DVD players sold during the six-week time frame of two-format availability, according to NPD.


I give up.

 

[Shawn Perron]

This isn't very helpful since it doesn't say by how much. Also it doesn't indicate whether the difference was sizable enough to show if HD-DVD is picking up speed or Blu-Ray is slowing down.


Pros for HD-DVD:
1) It held it's own during the high profile Blu-Ray launch
2) A trend may be starting where it regularly outsells Blu-Ray.

Pro for Blu-Ray:
1) Since it's bringing in 69% of the revenue in sales, retailers may decide this is the format to push by dedicating more/better retail space.
2) It held it's own against HD-DVD during it's launch.

 

[AaronSCH]

I am sorry but that article is like trying to decipher the Davinci Code…and this thread is beginning to feel like sitting through the movie.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

It doesn't help that she seems to have rewritten it to clarify her points; it makes a bit more sense now, though.

 

[RobertR]

Sounds to me like the Samsung had strong initial sales due to the curiosity factor, but sales trailed off as word of the disappointing quality spread.

 

[Shawn Perron]

Or maybe that inventory ran low on the samsung. There isn't enough data to read anything into this quote. A percentage of sales increase/decrease isn't even provided nevermind a rationale for the disparity.

 

[TedD]

That doesn't fit with people reporting that stores have anywhere from 3 to 4 on the shelf. And the others who have reported that an average BB maybe sold one.

Ted

 

[Shawn Perron]

Still, we are discussing official NPD sales numbers and not speculations based on a few peoples observations. HD-DVD technically could have outsold Blu-Ray by as little as 1% during the last 3 weeks of the 6 and still get that quote, but we just don't know because there are no numbers provided for that time period in the article.

 

[Austan]

The article makes no sense at all... HD-A1 was sold out of 10,000 units as soon as it hit the stores and it was weeks if not months before we heard any news about another shipment.

 

[Shawn Perron]

They used a 6 week window for Blu-Ray, so they'd have to use the first 6 weeks of HD-DVD to compare. It doesn't particularly matter how many units were in the market or when they were shipped, just how many were sold during the six weeks following the HD-DVD launch.