Huge Retail Win for HD DVD

During the summer, Blockbuster announced that they would only sell Blu-ray titles in their stores. This was seen as the biggest retail victory for the next generation high definition formats. That was, until today. Wal-mart announced that they will offer the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player tomorrow for $98.97. The offer is part of a larger “pre-Black Friday” promotion that will also include plasma TVs, laptops and other CE devices.

While the HD DVD camp has had some wins of late, this may be the biggest. Wal-mart is the second largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States. This is even better news for consumers. There is now a high definition player under the magical $100 price point. Additionally, it likely will lead to price cuts of other players from retailers like Best-buy, Circuit City and Amazon. Could we actually be closer to one high definition format? We will see.