TWICE magazine reports that leaked NPD figures show Blu-ray is still dominating player sales. For the week ending January 26th Blu-ray claimed 65% of standalone player sales to HD DVD’s 28%. And 6% went to the combo players. (The other 1%? Rounding error I presume.) On a dollar basis BD took 69%, HD DVD 14% (reflecting the steep price cuts), and combo players 17% (reflecting their high prices). Note that the NPD figures count only standalone players and not game consoles.
The leaked NPD data broke down the sales by brand:
- Sony (32 percent unit share, 33 percent dollar share)
- Toshiba (28 percent unit share, 14 percent dollar share)
- Samsung (13 percent unit share, 23 percent dollar share)
- Sharp (17 percent unit share, 14 percent dollar share)
- Panasonic (8 percent unit share, 12 percent dollar share)
- LG (1 percent unit share, 3 percent dollar share)
That’s not a good sign for Toshiba, when Sony alone is selling more players than they are – despite the price cuts.
And, in the rumor category, it Home Cinema Choice is reporting that UK high street retailer Currys may be dropping HD DVD. HCC claims an internal source told them it is posted on the Currys’s intranet and is ’100% certain’. But they’ve also updated to say that, since the news leaked a ‘certain manufacturer of HD DVD’ (which must be Toshiba, really) is lobbying Currys to keep stocking the format.
