HD DVD Player Sales on Rise

North American HD DVD trade group announces sales of dedicated HD DVD CE players has risen above the 100K mark.

The North American HD DVD Promotional Group – the folks behind the HD DVD format and associated hardware – today announced sales of HD DVD players had breached the 100,000 mark here in the United States. This figure does not include sales of HD DVD PC drives or the Xbox 360 HD DVD player.

These numbers, which come on recent news Blu-ray Discs are outselling their HD DVD rivals, comes as welcome news to Toshiba, the primary pusher of this particular next generation disc format. Toshiba recently introduced a new HD DVD player for around $500.

The HD DVD Promotional Group also reported more than 70 new titles expected to be released before the end of July, HD DVD owners will have more than 300 titles worldwide to choose from this summer.

"Toshiba remains committed to drive sales with strategic pricing and marketing to complement the rapid market adoption of HDTVs," said Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing, Toshiba America Consumer Products, in a statement. "Retailers are showing a significant increase in sales volume this month so far. On Amazon.com, our HD DVD players continue to rank among the top ten best sellers of all DVD players, which says a lot about how consumers relate to price."