Blu-ray standalone players selling well?

[Jim L]

I wonder whether it is too early to ask this kind of question, but I really want to know what others have been seeing around the country.

I'm in small town America in the southeast, and here's what I'm seeing.

I've seen Blu-ray players only (no HD-DVD) at my 2 local Best Buys and 1 Circuit City. In one of the BB's I think I've seen 2 Sonys sell in the last week. The other I need to check again.

At CC, when I was last in there they had a nice display demoing the Sony and a couple was there watching it. (Usually you would see some guy selling his wife on an a/v component, but in this case the wife was selling it to the husband). I don't yet know how well they are moving at CC.

Both BB and CC seemed to have a lot of Samsungs, including some discounted returned units.

At Tweeter, they have the Samsung, Panasonic, and Sony. Soon they'll have the Pioneer. I know they sold at least 1 Sony because I bought it.

At online retailers, I know this bit of information.

Crutchfield has plenty of stock on the Samsung, but they are sold out of the Panasonic and Sony. They have sold out 2 complete shipments of the Panny, 1 shipment of the Sony but they say they are getting more Sonys in soon. I don't know any numbers.

I'd like others (with connections in retail) to comment on what activity they're seeing on Blu-ray players that they have observed.