I think I may understand the strategy.

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Originally Posted by alpinewiz

If I am off please let me know. First and foremost I do not have a financial stake in either format. Having worked at Best Buy in the HT department I saw this first hand. Customers will come in to purchase a system and you ask them if they know about Blu-Ray and HD DVD. After giving them all of the facts, good and bad for both, they decide to purchase one, and yes I was one of the more informed sales people. About 80% of the time the customer purchased the player brand that matched the television. I always told them that it did not matter that they were the same brand but they liked that everything matched. This Christmas you will see a large jump in Blu-Ray player sales just because of this fact. The only way for HD DVD to pull anything like this off is to offer more than just Toshiba players because my top 5 television brands, covering all types of televisions, were Sharp, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba. If the trend continues, and being very generous, Toshiba should only have about 20% of the HDM market at the end of the year beginning of next. What do you guys think?

Interesting. And it's probably not a coicidence that the five top TV sales companies are also the five top HDM disc player makers.

I wonder if you can turn the argument around? If a company doesn't offer a matching player, even if the consumer isn't going to buy a player right away, is the set less likely to sell?

It would be an interesting coincidence that the five main TV makers are the five main HDM disc player makers.

Another thought: Would bundle deals (TV + player) be successful? HD DVD and BD players cost about the same to make. But, Toshiba has pushed the retail pricing of HD DVD so low, that the value perception of any bundling is reduced.

Gary