now this is IRONY at the expense of universal studios ken graffeo

[joeorc]

Universal Studios' Ken Graffeo, who also heads the HD DVD promotional groups in the US and Europe, believes that the key indicator will be sales of pure DVD players, not consoles."We're still in the introductory phase. There are 90m TV homes in the US. So far just 250,000 HD DVD players have been sold worldwide. We will have to wait until overall numbers reach at least half a million before being able to point to a winner."

Prices must come down further, says Graffeo, for consumers to take a genuine interest. The cheapest player in the UK, made by Toshiba, costs £340, according to GfK, and the cheapest Blu-ray, made by Samsung, is around £400. US prices have already dropped to around £150 for HD DVD machines, but standard DVD players are common now at £40.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...124.xml&page=2

well Ken Graffeo define IRONY....


Xbox 360 HD DVD drive more popular than standalone drives

The HD DVD Group announced in April that it had sold over 100,000 players in the U.S. in its first year of availability. The numbers only represented standalone players, and did not include sales of HD DVD PC drives or the Xbox 360 HD DVD player.

A Microsoft representative told CNET UK that 155,000 Xbox 360 HD DVD add-ons have been sold in the U.S., making it the “biggest-selling accessory” ever sold for the console. By “biggest-selling,” Microsoft may be referring to the overall revenue, as it would seem unlikely that the HD DVD add-on would be more popular than extra controllers. Each HD DVD drive retails for around $200.

Even with the combination of standalone HD DVD players and the Xbox 360 add-on, the overall number of HD DVD-capable players is less than the total number of Blu-ray playing machines. The difference between those two, however, is that every HD DVD player or drive is purchased with the intention of playing movies. On the other hand, not every Blu-ray machine is (with the majority of them being PlayStation 3 consoles) purchased for movies.

Even though there is more Blu-ray hardware in the hands of consumers, the HD DVD side averages more movies sold per machine. According to CNET, an average of one disc per Blu-ray machine is sold, compared to four discs per HD DVD machine. Nevertheless, overall disc sales for 2007 are still in favor of Blu-ray.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7795