Andre Yoskowitz
27 Apr 2007 11:26
Yesterday, Fuh Yuan and Wal-Mart both denied that the story reported earlier, that millions of dollars of HD players had been purchased by Wal-Mart for sale at $299 USD, and that there had been no deal made yet.
Fuh Yuan issued a statement stating that Wal-Mart was shopping around searching for a mass of HD-DVD players but there had been no deal made, nor a price set.
Wal-Mart only gave a brief denial of the reports, which lead analysts to suggest that Wal-Mart was indeed a supporter of HD-DVD and that they were searching for a mass amount of players in the format.
We may not know where Wal-Mart stands until the holidays or even beyond and for now the retailer will continue to sell players and discs in both formats.
On the manufacturing end, Toshiba said it will continue to license its HD-DVD technology to Chinese manufacturers in the hopes the prices of HD-DVD players will continue to plummet. Toshiba's current entry level bargain player, sold at $399 USD, is widely considered to be sold at below cost price, and $399 is still pretty expensive and aimed mostly at early adopters not the casual consumer.
Source:
Arstechnica