Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 16 February 2008 08:01
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Wal-Mart say they will continuing selling through remaining HD DVD product, but “in less than 30 days customers will see a more predominant move toward Blu-ray in stores, clubs and online”.
Presumably if any HD DVD stock is still in stores after that time, Wal-Mart will try to ‘fire sale’ the remaining stock, or failing that, simply returning it to Toshiba and letting them do with it what they will.
Wal-Mart say that they “thoughtfully reviewed all areas and impact in making its decision, and is excited to move forward with one format and share its future plans with customers”.
Susan Chronister, the author For Gaming, General and Movies in Wal-Mart’s own ‘
Checkout Blog’, spoke very excitedly about the change to Blu-ray.
Chronister said that: “I am very excited about this news!! This decision will make my job so much easier. While I myself bought an HD player this Christmas, primarily because my husband is a huge Jason Bourne fan, I guess I am going to have to retire it to the kids play room as an up convert”.
She continued that: “My kids have already been enamored by the great hi def experience and we no longer have control of the TV in our family room. Soon they will enjoy the family Hi Def player in their playroom and can watch their standard def Scooby Doo, Star Wars, and Harry Potter movies as if they were in Hi Def”.
Chronister then re-confirmed Wal-Mart’s plans to be Blu-ray only by June, saying: “Enough about my family and on to the Wal-Mart plans… by June Wal-Mart will only be carrying BluRay movies and hardware machines, and of course standard def movies, DVD players, and up convert players. Not sure of the short term pricing plans, but history tells us that as more people move to a new technology prices typically go down”.
Interestingly, Chronister originally bought an HD DVD player, but clearly now wants to replace it with a Blu-ray player, probably purchased at some kind of staff discount, at least making the ‘sting’ of the extra purchase a little softer for her.
Please read onto page 3 to see how her blog post concludes - and for information on some of the commenters at her blog.
