Earlier this week, during the CEDIA convention, Sony made some bold statements concerning the current market share of its high definition movie format, Blu-ray.
According to the company, stand-alone Blu-ray players have begun outselling HD-DVD players over the last 12 weeks, granting them a 63% market share. This statement has since then sparked controversy among High Definition forums such as the AVSForums and the forums over at HighDefDigest.com.
This announcement was a huge shock to pretty much everyone in attendance, as HD-DVD players have been outselling Blu-ray players since the inception of Blu-ray. This being due to cheaper stand-alone players, and longer running campaign.
Toshiba, a big time HD-DVD backer has heard Sony's claims and today has released a public statement with it's own numbers. Toshiba, citing NPD numbers for the month of July, claims that it's HD-DVD players alone outsell all Blu-ray players by a margin of 13%.
The NPD study is done monthly and is a widely accepted chart for sales figures, market share and is a tool used by many analysts to create predictions for the future. During the month of July, HD-DVD players accounted for 55% of all stand alone High Definition players, where as Blu-ray came in second with a respectable 42% market share, and combination players far behind with just 3% of sales.
Even more confusion comes into effect as many are now stating that Blu-ray is still technically in head of HD-DVD, if revenue is to be relied on. Basically, this theory puts Blu-ray players ahead because they have made more money selling fewer units. This is due to the much higher price point on most stand alone Blu-ray drives.
Toshiba has made a statement on this theory, stating: "While the competition may claim leadership based on one month of data, Toshiba has had continued sales leadership in every month since the original HD DVD players launched 17 months ago."
Regardless of which format is currently outselling the other, sales are surprisingly close right now, and with Christmas shopping season just around the corner, it appears that this format war is far from over. Be sure to check back in for more details on this as well as all of the latest in Blu-ray news!
Source: Highdefdigest.com
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