Amazon sells heaps of HD movie players this holiday season
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 28th 2007 8:37AM
posted Dec 28th 2007 8:37AM
Yeah, Amazon's just blatantly tooting its own horn here, but facts are facts, we guess. Reportedly, the e-tailer had quite the impressive holiday sales season -- its "best ever," actually. Beyond the fact that it sold about 17 Wiis per second (while they were in stock) and made deliveries to some 200 countries, it moved enough high-definition movie players to "cover seven football fields." Unfortunately, it didn't bother breaking down the HD DVD / Blu-ray numbers, nor were we told which HD flicks sold more than others, but judging by the firm's rankings it's safe to say that quite a few folks received HD DVD titles this holiday season. If you're geared up to handle even more gloating, hit the read the link and hang on.
" -- Amazon.com sold enough high-def DVD players to cover seven football fields."
Well *technically,* these can only be HD DVD players, since the word "DVD" can't legally be used to describe Blu-Ray. ;)
Considering that the HD DVD players were always ranked higher than the BD players on Amazon, and the fact that I can't see Amazon lumping PS3s in that statement, we should be able to get a decent guess at how many players were sold. Someone have time to do the math to figure out roughly how many players were sold, since each player is roughly the same size?
I think I will do something economically productive instead, thanks...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/172514/ref=pd_ts_e_nav
Judging by the overall DVD player rankings, HD-DVD dominated, with the Toshiba A3 taking the number 1 spot, and A30 the number 2 spot and the A35 coming in at #6. The A2 landed at #34 and the XA2 at #54.
A Panasonic BD player is the first BD on the list at #11, shortly followed by "cheap" Samsung BD-P1400 at #13, and the Sony S-300 w/ Spiderman 3 at #15 and w/o Spiderman at #28. The S-500 at #36. A Sharp player at #42.
The LG combo player was #97.
This is only one reseller. And while I did get another high-definition player, I did not get it from or through Amazon.
Tool: the article is about Amazon's sales figures, not the format war. No need to get defensive.
I'm sure HD DVD players dominated the sales. I wish I bought an XA2 when it was still available at amazon.com. Now you can only find it at relatively unknown vendors with an inflated price. I am curious why at crutchfield.com it says XA2 is a discontinued item. Is it the reason why it is hard to find?
I believe it was replaced by the A35, which is essentially the same thing but omits the Reon video-processing chip.
Another site I frequent came up with roughly 180k HD A3's if only including HD DVD.
Assuming a 13"x17" footprint, each HD-DVD player takes up about 221 square inches. A football field (not using endzones), is 100 yards (or 3600 inches) x 160 feet (1920 inches) wide. This makes 6912000 square inches. So 6912000/221 = 31276 HD-DVD players. Hope that helps :)
so that is 7 x 31,276?
Yes, it's 7 football fields, apparently, so a total of 218932 HD-DVD players. Without endzones :oP
The Toshiba HD A3 (and the HD A2 before it) have been the top selling DVD player (as in 'top of all DVD plyers, period', not just high def players) on Amazon for most of 2007.
If you look at the video game rankings, the gamecube is outselling both the 40GB PS3 or any version of the xbox 360.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/ref=pd_ts_c_th_more?&pf_rd_p=304529601&pf_rd_s=right-5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=468642&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0FWWZA339RBEPGTKDMD3
The PS3 remote is 12th on that list though.
the wii is seperate from the ps3 or xbox 360...a lot of 360 or ps3 owners also have a wii and some wii owners are new to the video game market
LOL, that is hilarious. The PS3, thwarted by the gamecube.
It certainly was a great end of year for Amazon.
Blu-ray dominated the Amazon sales in both media and Blu-ray players.
Blu-ray is holding it's own in standalone players. When you throw in the PS3 factor it's an absolute slaughter.
HD DVD should be happy 2007 is over, it certainly was a crushing year for that format, while Blu-ray emerged the winner at an impressive 2:1 sales advantage.
All eyes are on 1st quarter 08.
What in God's holy name are you blathering about? Out of ALL DVD players, the Toshiba A3 was the #1 best selling, the A30 was #2 and the A35 was #6.
"Blu-ray dominated the Amazon sales in both media and Blu-ray players."
How in the hell do you get out with that conclusion? LOL.. I swear to God.. you know they are refering to HD DVD players right? Cause you know, in the past year, HD DVD players were mostly among top 5 and taking the first spot in all electronics?
Ah denial. You just keep thinking that. The higher you fly, the harder you fall.
What are you on about?
Acording to amazon salesrankings the top 5 HD-DVD titles are outselling the #1 blu-ray title, and the top 10 HD-DVD titles are all ahead of the #2 blu-ray title.
I think you have your figures flipped.
change your name too! You're ruining a good name with your lack of intelligence and ability to read sales charts.
AHAHAHAHAHA! You're an illiterate tool with a reading comprehension disability.
Delusional much?
HD DVD slaughtered BD on amazon this Christmas season. Not sure where you get your figures other than fabricating them in your mind.
Much as I'd love to defend you pal, I've never seen Blu on top in stand-alone sales on Amazon. They've been on top many a time in HDM sales, but never in hardware.
I wonder if the price of HD-DVD discs will go up on eBay once the format is discontinued?
Boo this man!
BOOOOOOOOO!
Hard to say, did the dreamworks and paramount titles go up in value on BD?
61-39 in Blu's favor according to AVS. If next week holds steady then Blu will have swept the year, though not by any decisive margin. So I'd hold off ordering the victory champagne for HD-DVD.
And while Tosh has done well by Amazon, consider that Walmart has the PS3 40GB in 1st place, the Sony Sony BDP-S300 in second, and the Venturer in 3rd.
http://www.walmart.com/search/browse-ng.do?catNavId=62055&catNavId=62055&ic=9_0&ref=125875.331064&search_sort=5&selected_items=
The situation at Best Buy is similar, so Tosh hasn't swept the two largest HDM retailers. Don't start using the words "nail" and "coffin" due to Amazon...remember how well that worked out last time.
Yeah, only you are listing web site page not rankings.. and if you pay CLOSE attention you would see that actually Toshiba HD DVD is SOLD OUT at Walmart. Walmart is hardly stocking any Blu-ray players anywhere in their stores anymore. Only HD DVD standalone, regular DVD players and PS3 in gaming section.
Also, it's not just Amazon.. starting this weekend..Best Buy will have $299 A30 player with 7 free movies + buy 3 get 2 free HD DVD movies + 3-pack HD DVD for $45.
Nobody is mentioning coffins and nails.. that's all Blu-Ray buddy.. all year long too...
We are just talking about things that are happening now..
"Yeah, only you are listing web site page not rankings"
Pay attention my friend. There is a sort feature by "top seller". I posted the link with that enabled if you care to parse the url, or resort yourself if you wish.
"and if you pay CLOSE attention you would see that actually Toshiba HD DVD is SOLD OUT"
And if you pay closer attention, only that model is sold out...as is the Blu Samsung. There is another model, $40 cheaper in fact, that is in stock.
As for the "coffin" bit...well, you may not be employing that phrase...but the same empty faith is there.
PS: "We are just talking about things that are happening now"
No, because in the "now" the rest of us inhabit, Blu won by the margin it usually does it high volume weeks. It may not be a large margin, but it won as it usually does.
You probably thought it was all over the week after Transformers came out didn't you? If not then, surely you did during the $99 clearance at Wal-mart? Venturer's release? Paramount? TL51?
I'm not sure why you think Blu Ray fanboys are the only tools in this silly war. The end will not come in the course of a few weeks: Not even if Warner flips one way or the other.
My Mom got an A3 for Xmas courtesy of Amazon
Nfinity, you are in for a crushing waking up soon. Don't tell me I didn't warn ya ;)
And yeah, Blu Ray dominated the year by en large, lets be real here. Only by putting out Bogos at the last minute with Day and date releases like Bourne and the HP movies was HD DVD able to take the lead on a few days (at Amazon specifically I might add).
Look
http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/
Three periods for HD dvd (for about a week), 3 promos (first was a 3 for 2, next 2 bogos).
The effect of the current bogo is already flattening out.
But again, let's see what happens in the coming 2-3 weeks :)
No..actually I would like to warn you.. Blu-Ray has been barely trying to keep the numbers up in sales thorugh the whole year, but last 3 months with the help of numerous BOGOs.. HD DVD is just STARTING...
Just sit back, get some popcorn and watch some heavy duty slaughtering by HD DVD most likely starting next week as far as numbers go..
Amazon has already stated.. they sold A WHOLE bunch of HD DVD players.. some people are already reporting close to 200k additional HD DVD players for this holiday season.
HD DVD will be at 1 million easy by year's end.. which is close.. Blu-Ray's domination that relied on a PS3 is at an end..
I just hope you are not surprised or you act like it's some conspiracy.. we've been talking about this for several months now... it was so obvious yet you Blu-Ray tools refused to believe it.
The more standalone sales rise as they are now for HD DVD.. the more drastic numbers will be for HD DVD software sales.
By latest insider information even though last week was 61:39, HD DVD version of Blade Runner outsold Blu-Ray version and Bourne Ultimatum took number one spot out of all HD titles. HP sales were almost 50:50 between HD DVD and Blu-Ray. If this was last week.. next week will be an eye opener for you.
"HP sales were almost 50:50 between HD DVD and Blu-Ray."
So if HP sales are 50:50, that kind of negates Amazon as a force in the ratings doesn't it? You're also assuming volume didn't rise for Blu standalone players either. Blu is outselling its Red player counterparts at Walmart...and that was supposed to the be secret bastion that bleeds red, disqualifying all Neilson results.
Have a good weekend all.
HD-DVD is slaughtering Blu-ray this holiday season:
http://amazon.highdefdigest.com/rank.aspx
Where is H4 and the fool BBG now?
I cant see the gloating now, HD DVD is dead, why are millions of people buying a dead format, BR is sooooo much better, bla, bla, bla.
For a dead format, this is a huge end of year result and a warning for all BD supporters, the tide is turning and this war WILL be decided by cheap stand alone players, bring on Q1 2008!
Pretty sure BBg was banned...so probably using a new name. Not sure about h4...i have seen some post from him.
Lets end this right now:
Blu-Ray highest capacity 100GB, with tests up to 200GB. HD-DVD is only 30 with a test to 51.
Look at this graphic
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/HighDefShare.svg
Imagine Paramount didnt switch? That would leave one studio left for HD-DVD, and there are still too many Blu-Ray studios to say it will be over soon. You can name a few HD-DVDs that top the seller list, but thats because there are less of them available, where as there are more Blu-Rays. Plus the Blockbuster support, price per GB on a disc, sales, I could go on forever.
Look at these also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_high_definition_optical_disc_formats#Retail_price_of_consumer-writable_discs
and
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/HighDefSales.svg
Jake, why did you reply to my post with "Tool: the article is about Amazon's sales figures, not the format war. No need to get defensive."
In what word or groups of words did I suggest anything about format, let alone format war? I own multiple players capable of playing one format or the other (I own movies on both). My reply was to point out that not all high-definition players sold this holiday season were sold by Amazon--and I included an example.
In fact, it will probably be before the end of this weekend that I'll buy yet another player, and yet again it will be not from Amazon. Not that I have anything against Amazon, but the local retailers are competing with Amazon on this front.
Either way I don't care. I got my dual HD DVD/Blu Ray for $300. Whatever....