Rob Enderle (Toshi consultant) article: Walmart Declares HD DVD The Winner

[ra1024]

I just found this article over at digital trends.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.html&cid=5640

[MyXBR3isMygf]

What exactly is it the winner of? Not the next-gen dvd format war, obviously.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by ra1024

I just found this article over at digital trends.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.html&cid=5640

We will be hearing all kinds of stories like these to convince people to stay away from BLU-RAY. People will try to convince people that BLU-Ray is the next BETA. We will be reading these stupid articles for possible for a long long time even though BLU-RAY is clearly winning right now.

Some HD-DVD pro quotes from the link:

“It means that any studio wanting Wal-Mart’s support after year end had better be selling HD DVD movies. Wal-Mart won’t be promoting Blu-Ray and, after year end, will increasingly focus their marketing on getting people to buy into HD DVD players and the related HD DVD movie from them.

In short, the Blu-Ray aligned studios will now have to either support both formats or risk losing much of Wal-Mart's business and given how material this business is to them, you have to think that an anti-Wall-Mart decision would have a material impact on their bonuses and career longevity. It certainly puts Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony, in a particularly uncomfortable position.”

[dialog_gvf]

Wow. Just wow.

How the heck did MS-Toshiba manage to buy that?

Ah

By: Rob Enderle

He's a Toshiba consultant.

This whole things is getting rather nasty.

[nhaase]

That guy linked to another news story that links to the AVS forum!

THIS STORY IS IN NO WAY CONFIRMED!!!!

Would a moderator please post that on a sticky. Every day I get on these forums and someone's found some new spin on this story, and they all go back to that farcical AVS forum. Unless someone who speaks whatever language that was written in is posting a DEFINITIVE TRANSLATION, there is nothing new to report right now. This is really starting to get on my nerves.

[Ascended_Saiyan]

I loved that use of the word "apparently" spread throughout that piece.

[HDTV1080P]

I am so upset after reading that article. Disney, Fox and Sony Pictures could decide to not sale movies on both DVD and BLU-RAY to any major retailer that wants to play dirty. People can go to Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City instead to purchase movies.

[Forresttheman]

boycott Walmart!

[maximus2323]

Originally Posted by ra1024

I just found this article over at digital trends.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.html&cid=5640

Cannot believe many are still with this. Just wait for confirmation.

-max

[thebluemax]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

I am so upset after reading that article. Guess what Disney, Fox and Sony Pictures could decide to not sale movies on both DVD and BLU-RAY to any major retailer that wants to play dirty. People can go to Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City instead to purchase movies.

Plus, I don't think the studios will want to release in HD-DVD because of the piracy issue-BLU-RAY has a tremendous advantage here. If the Walmart story is true, and Fox, Sony, and Disney boycott Walmart ,they will lose big time.

[Brent]

This guy is a nut job. His 'logic' sounds plausible if you don't know Wal-Mart's business strategy -- they order products (actually manufactures beg them to order their products) and if the products don't sell after some Wal-Mart determined amount of shelf time, then Wal-Mart ships them back to the vendor at the vendor's expense. What does this mean? It means Wal-Mart has nothing to lose by supporting both formats, so why bother 'declaring' anything?

This guy also makes the common mistake of thinking Wal-Mart only cares about lowering the cost of its purchases. Well, no kidding, but the product has to sell. Thus, like anyone intelligent, they care about efficiency, which boils down to how strong the expected sales are for a product, because otherwise it is a massive waste to order, receive, code, make stock room, make aisle space and displays, etc. If anything, blu-ray is the format that is showing real promise for increasingly strong sales into the future.

[nhaase]

We've all seen the number of sites posting stories like these, and they all say that this is true. We know that it is not true as of now. Right now, it's completely unfounded, since we have no true translation. If you support Blu-ray, you need to give feedback on sites which post this story telling them to better research before they publish these stories. Wouldn't this story make the Wall Street Journal if it were confirmed?!

I've found the HD-digest story on it to be decent, since it talks about the "blue-light" part, so link them to that, or any other story citing that uncertainty. Don't let them get away with this BS campaign to try and counter Blu-ray's momentum. Also, remind them that blu-ray has broken the "1 million sold" barrier.

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by Forresttheman

boycott Walmart!

Good thinking!Go Target (or large department store other than Wally World.)

[coolmilo]

This is the best story that money can buy. However, Walmart has not sold one unit yet. Imagine if they have to give 5 HD DVD's for each player they sell. Walmat is huge and could help HD DVD in a big way but will anyone make any money on this junk. And don't get me started on the bugs and problems they are going to have. Sheesh, Toshiba can't even get it right. This whole plan might end of backfiring and ultimately cause HD DVD to die a horrible death because the player will plagued with problems - and you just know it will. Walmart will sell 2 million players and have to take back 2 million players and the HD DVD fanboys will claim victory.

[HDTV1080P]

I hope this movie comes out on BLU-RAY one day. Can only buy it on DVD and Walmart refuses to sale this video.

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?userid=99365613481663&item_id=742981&s earchID=370050

[Chad Varnadore]

This is the second HD/BD related article I've read from this guy and both were sensational, poorly supported and even more poorly reasoned garbage. The first article said that HD DVD had already massacred BD and won the war. This was way back around or before the PS3 had been released, basically before the war had even taken off.

This holiday buying season will tell us more. But neither Sony, Disney, nor Fox expects it to be over in a year. All are looking long term, as they don't believe the market is there yet - hence the higher player prices. They're not charging more just because they have too, but because the demand isn't significant enough to justify anything lower. Cheap HD DVD players aren't going to make much of a dent with Joe6pack, when he looks on the shelfs and sees all his favorite movies in blu boxes. Nor is 300 a no-brainer investment for more casual fans, if they know there is any chance of the format faltering due to a rivalry. If they're aware of the lack of industry support and the chance of the format dying, 300.00 might as well be 3000.00. Most won't accept the risk. This guy must be an HD DVD fanboy himself. He's basically taken a 3-4 day rumor that Wal-mart has ordered 2 million HD DVD players and run with it -making it out to be something its not just to attract attention to himself or his publication - as if that somehow means the Walmart has chosen to firmly support HD DVD and cease support of BD when there's nothing to remotely suggest that. I can only imagine that the guy is trying to influence the industry to meet his personal bias or appeal to what he sees as the majority fanbase from spending too much time on AVS. Because no unbiased, remotely thorough, even competent evaluation of what's going on in the industry right now could result in the same conclusions that he's making up. If this is the level of credibility that digitaltrends aspires, I don't think I'll be checking thier site in the future if I want to know what's really going on in the digital world we live in. Thinly supported speculation isn't grounds for news. This is fantasy in the guise of credible reporting, which it's clearly not.

[Brent]

The implications that the author spells out in this story simply don't make sense. Wal-Mart is a great place to buy DVDs during the first week of their release and then again after they get put in the bargain bins. They sell something like 40% of all DVDs, but this is all about discs, not players.

It's not going to be long before Blu-Ray has 100 more titles than HD-DVD and you can bet that this fact, combined with stronger sales, is going to make Wal-Mart think hard about continuing to mess around with HD-DVD. At any rate, Wal-Mart is not going to "declare" a format winner, but they will drop any product that is not selling well.

[HDTV1080P]

Microsoft Company hires Wal-Mart executive to join executive leadership team.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/aug05/08-04TurnerPR.mspx

Microsoft is a very smart company.

http://www.centernetworks.com/walmart-in-bed-with-microsoft-no-to-firefox

[WriteSimply]

It is becoming increasingly clear that MS has used AVSF as their soundboard with little scrutiny. When this Wal-Mart stories are linked to just threads and posts in AVSF, its too dangerous even though it is a desperate move. The reason it is dangerous is because early adopters or those who don't know better are getting sucked into a format that its primary backer has no intention of backing.

As I said in another thread, we need more insiders from many different companies from the BDA to go in Forum.Blu-ray.Com and maybe AVSF. They are needed to provide up-to-date progress of any studio's BD project or BD player.


fuad

[Zotar]

At the moment I'm leaning towards the theory that Microsoft is propping up HD-DUD in an effort to kill both formats and expadite the time when we're all downloading HD content. Then it will do everything it can to ensure that Live is the vehicle of choice for HD Downloads.

I believe that HD-DUD would have been dropped long ago if Microsoft weren't "incentivising" Toshiba, Universal Studios (and maybe others) to keep with it.