Video Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on December 26, 2007 at 12:27:28

In Reply to: RE: No it won't posted by Jack G on December 26, 2007 at 08:08:58

Here in Australia the Toshiba players are dearer than in the US. So of course are the BD players but the difference between them is nowhere near the same and it seems from what I've seen that Toshiba—note: HD DVD released 2 months after BD here, not months before it as in the US—simply pegged the price of their cheapest machine around $100 Australian or so under the cheapest BD player and have kept it there. There other prices are in the same price range as BD and sale prices occasionally seem to bring a BD machine down to the same price as the cheapest Toshiba or very close to it.

I'd say that parity, or very close to it, already exists here. I suspect that the price of HD DVD machines in the US is artificially low as HD DVD tries to capture the lead in a significant market. They'll probably continue to keep them artificially low while the format war rages but if neither side wins and the outcome is co-existence I would definitely expect you to see parity in the US.

Even while the format war continues, I would expect to see the price gap narrow between HD DVD and BD in the US. As prices get lower, there's less room to make large reductions in pricing and the gap has to narrow. One side will always have to have the cheapest machine but when the rest of the machines on that side fall into the same price range as the competing side as is the case here in Australia, it's arguable that parity has effectively been achieved unless you're want to see exact equality of price at the lowest level. I expect the situation in the US will end up mirroring the situation here at some point if it already does not.



David Aiken