Visual Proof of HD-A2 at Walmart

[wnorris]

Originally Posted by jmpage2

Personally my suspicion is that they made this deal for the A2 some time ago and have been dedicating production for Wal Mart for at least the last month or so. Walmart might also feel more comfortable selling the A2 as it's been out for a year, has more refined firmware and has a "proven" track record with consumers.

Wal Mart might have placed such a large order that they needed to dedicate A2 production to them some time ago, and now A3 is going into the channel for everyone else.

One store has reported about 60 decks on order. There are over 1000 Walmarts in the US, plus more in Canada. Assuming other stores are ordering around 60 decks, that's 60K decks going to Wal Mart stores as an initial order. With likely additional shipments going out in November/December.

That's a fair amount of production.

Fact check:

There are 1040 Wal-Mart Discount stores in the US (regular Wal-Marts). There are 2326 Wal-Mart Super stores in the US (super Wal-Marts).

This brings the total number of Wal-Marts to 3366 in the US, not including Sam's Clubs (584) and Canada (278 + 7 Sams). That would be 254k players if every location got 60 (highly unlikely).

[unclewebb]

Toshiba isn't losing money selling an A2 at $200. The marginal cost to manufacture a machine to play an HD DVD is minimal. The real cost is probably similar to what it costs to manufacture a stand alone DVD player and we all know how little they retail for these days.

The movie companies that went exclusively with HD DVD this year did so for one reason. Toshiba's new deal with Wal-Mart at a price point that any consumer with a high def TV can easily afford. They are hoping to flood the market with these players this Christmas season. Movie sales will follow which should convince more of Hollywood to produce HD DVDs in 2008.

XBox outselling the PS3 by over 4 to 1 last month, Transformers HD DVD continuing to sit at #1 in the high def sales charts and Toshiba getting their foot in the door at Wal-Mart are all very positive signs for HD DVD.

[jmpage2]

Originally Posted by unclewebb

Toshiba isn't losing money selling an A2 at $200. The marginal cost to manufacture a machine to play an HD DVD is minimal. The real cost is probably similar to what it costs to manufacture a stand alone DVD player and we all know how little they retail for these days.

The movie companies that went exclusively with HD DVD this year did so for one reason. Toshiba's new deal with Wal-Mart at a price point that any consumer with a high def TV can easily afford. They are hoping to flood the market with these players this Christmas season. Movie sales will follow which should convince more of Hollywood to produce HD DVDs in 2008.

XBox outselling the PS3 by over 4 to 1 last month, Transformers HD DVD continuing to sit at #1 in the high def sales charts and Toshiba getting their foot in the door at Wal-Mart are all very positive signs for HD DVD.

That's a rather ignorant statement.

If you want to say that at the basic level, the assembly of a DVD machine and an HD DVD machine are the same then you would be correct.

However, the parts costs, even with large volumes, for an HD DVD player (or Blu Ray player) are much much higher.

HD DVD players require inclusion of a blue laser diode, additional computer memory, additional ethernet controllers and many other components not found in a regular DVD player.

Even at commodity prices this adds a lot to the manufacturing costs.

Blu Ray players are even more expensive to manufacture because they require the inclusion of a much higher quality optical sub system to read the blu-ray disc spec.

[unclewebb]

You should look into the actual cost of computer memory or ethernet ports when you buy 100,000 or a 1,000,000 of them.

The cost of HD DVD was to develop the technology. The cost to actually produce a player is dirt cheap and well under the $200 retail price.

[wnorris]

Originally Posted by jmpage2

That's a rather ignorant statement.

If you want to say that at the basic level, the assembly of a DVD machine and an HD DVD machine are the same then you would be correct.

However, the parts costs, even with large volumes, for an HD DVD player (or Blu Ray player) are much much higher.

HD DVD players require inclusion of a blue laser diode, additional computer memory, additional ethernet controllers and many other components not found in a regular DVD player.

Even at commodity prices this adds a lot to the manufacturing costs.

Blu Ray players are even more expensive to manufacture because they require the inclusion of a much higher quality optical sub system to read the blu-ray disc spec.

Memeroy and Ethernet ports are dimes in large quantities. Blue laser isn't what it once was either. In January, just the diode was around $35 if you could get one. Now in for a quantity of one they are about $14, so in bulk, probably around $9 each. 1/4 the price now as in January.

They are more expensive than DVD, but I doubt by more than $20-$30 at this time. A decent chunk of that is just extra licensing.

[MohaimenK]

Even if they make $10 profit, still they're making a profit. 2nd, they're not here to make profit on their players, they're more interested in ONE THINK and that is to win the war and be exclusive. That will give them over $10 billion over the next 10 years. Sony is too much into themselves to understand that. They want to make money now and future. That's their plan.

[jmpage2]

I'm very familiar with what components cost in bulk, as I work for a telecomm equipment provider and have seen the cost breakdown on our components.

I think you will find though that even from a parts perspective an HD DVD player costs at least $50 more in just parts costs than a standard DVD unit.

You guys would be a bit naive to suggest otherwise. Would you argue that an HD DVD player requires a faster processor? More RAM? extra controllers? Extra DSPs?

Even at bulk prices all of this adds up. It also increases cost of the mainboard fabrication .

[cobolisdead]

I hope these players don't come out before I get my stand alone player. Man, I really hope that I can hold out for an XA2.

[Otter0911]

Originally Posted by rover2002

If true.
Should this not be in the rumor thread?

Its a pretty nice A2 rumor I got sitting in my bedroom for $198.00

[Dark Helmet]

I saw the A3 at my local walmart for $298

[D-X]

Those of you asking why would WM or Toshiba do this: Its Wal-Mart. Do NOT disregard their buying and selling power.

[unclewebb]

Here's a powerful Celeron 900 which is very similar to the one inside the A2.

It retails for $10.48. Buy a 100,000 of them directly from Intel and I'm sure Toshiba got a better price than that. Once an item is designed, the incremental cost of production is minor. The third generation is more like a minor update with Toshiba learning new ways to cut costs to maintain their profit margins.

[Kolgar]

Yeahhhh... no.

I stopped at two Wal-Marts today in my town of Madison, Wisconsin. Both only just got their acts "together" with a half-assed HDM display on one endcap, about 3:2 Blu-ray to HD DVD.

It's pretty weak. And there's no HD player there of any kind other than PS3.

So far, no good.

[Averhoeven]

Now, the real question is... would Best Buy allow me to 30day price match with that or do I need to wait until pictures are up?

[cdzie1]

Not sure if this was posted:

"I have a picture of a 198.00 Toshiba a2 on a endcap in walmart. I dont know how to send it. The store I was at had to take the endcap down because its not set to sell until 11/03. It will be in the circular for that week. Each store was allocated 18 units. It is set as a nonreplenishable item. Meaning the will get in whole buys when they ask for them. Meaning walmart. If anyone knows how to share a pic let me know."


Note: I couldn’t link the image from imageshack, so I downloaded, resized and copied it to my server. It is not my picture however.

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/viewComments.cfm?db=dvd

[fafner]

Originally Posted by jmpage2

I'm very familiar with what components cost in bulk, as I work for a telecomm equipment provider and have seen the cost breakdown on our components.

I think you will find though that even from a parts perspective an HD DVD player costs at least $50 more in just parts costs than a standard DVD unit.

You guys would be a bit naive to suggest otherwise. Would you argue that an HD DVD player requires a faster processor? More RAM? extra controllers? Extra DSPs?

Even at bulk prices all of this adds up. It also increases cost of the mainboard fabrication .

There was a very detailed nearly full-page report in the New York Times a year or so ago which stated that a basic DVD player cost ~$19.00 to make, pack and distribute in the US. Thus, the explanation as to why Colby, etc can sell players for $29 or $39 and still make a sizeable profit. I have never seen anyone dispute this analysis.

So even with a basic HD-DVD player's parts costing 2 or even 4 times as much, then we can estimate that the cost ranges from $60 to $160.00. Thus a profit would be made at $199 and and most likely also at $149. Or using the $50 upcharge for HD-DVD parts mentioned here, the cost would be around $69.00, again ensuring a nice profit at any reported MSRP for HD-DVD players.

Remember that Toshiba's strategy all along was to minimize all costs by staying as close to standard DVD as possible in all aspects. It is not at all unreasonable to think they have gotten to the point now where the upcharge for making HD-DVD players is at a low figure.
fafner

[Averhoeven]

Well thank you. I figure with these 2 items in hand, I may find myself about $50 richer at Best Buy in the next few days!

[Slim GoodBooty]

I was in a WM yesterday and the A2 is $198, A3 is $298 and the S300 is $498.

[theone2]

Originally Posted by cdzie1

Note: I couldn’t link the image from imageshack, so I downloaded, resized and copied it to my server. It is not my picture however.

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/viewComments.cfm?db=dvd

[rover2002]

Originally Posted by cdzie1

Not sure if this was posted:

"I have a picture of a 198.00 Toshiba a2 on a endcap in walmart. I dont know how to send it. The store I was at had to take the endcap down because its not set to sell until 11/03. It will be in the circular for that week. Each store was allocated 18 units. It is set as a nonreplenishable item. Meaning the will get in whole buys when they ask for them. Meaning walmart. If anyone knows how to share a pic let me know."


Note: I couldn’t link the image from imageshack, so I downloaded, resized and copied it to my server. It is not my picture however.

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/viewComments.cfm?db=dvd

That looks like the A1.

[MichaelHDDVD]

Fantastic price!

$198 on the shelf at a store BAM!!!

No pricing error, no wondering if the online company will honor the $200 price. Now only if Toshiba flashes the "5 Free movie" promo

[The Doctor]

Originally Posted by rover2002

That looks like the A1.

No, that actually is an a2, you can tell by the picture of the A2 on the Box

[xboxboi]

omg - 30 units each ordered! that would be 60 units. if that is per store. how many of that will be on Wal-mart across the US of A

[Robert D]

Originally Posted by xboxboi

omg - 30 units each ordered! that would be 60 units. if that is per store. how many of that will be on Wal-mart across the US of A

I don't know how many Walmarts are in the USA but if they had this promotion world wide I think they could sell a million players by the end of the year.

[HiDef4Life]

This is fantastic new for HDDVD. C'mon Black Friday! So much for Fuh Yuan!

[xboxboi]

and oh. one of the many reasons that Dreamworks and Paramount went HD DVD exclusive. Comes November 3rd, we might see Disney making announcements that will again shock world press. Anyhow = people keep selling the 18month period exclusive deal. you know what. 18month is closing. start counting from June 2006

[rover2002]

Originally Posted by Robert D

I don't know how many Walmarts are in the USA but if they had this promotion world wide I think they could sell a million players by the end of the year.

Fixed.

[rover2002]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

No, that actually is an a2, you can tell by the picture of the A2 on the Box

What else could i have been referring to if not the pic?
The silver bar is blured and gave me the impression of a 1st gen unit, after checking my unit (E1) i concur, its a 2nd gen

[HiDef4Life]

Originally Posted by xboxboi

and oh. one of the many reasons that Dreamworks and Paramount went HD DVD exclusive. Comes November 3rd, we might see Disney making announcements that will again shock world press. Anyhow = people keep selling the 18month period exclusive deal. you know what. 18month is closing. start counting from June 2006

I thought HDDVD was ''dead''.

[rover2002]

Originally Posted by HiDef4Life

I thought HDDVD was ''dead''.

In asia it pretty much is