By Steve James and Lisa Baertlein
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
Toshiba Corp (6502.T) may
not have officially given up on its HD DVD format for high
definition DVDs, but the word on the street on Sunday was that
rival Sony Corp's (6758.T)(SNE.N) Blu-ray had won the war.
"Blu-ray won. It's fantastic and I trust Sony," said one
customer, William, browsing the DVD player aisles at the Best
Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) store on New York's Fifth Avenue.
"Blu-rays are flying off the shelves, but we have to order
if you want HD," said Tania Bonetti, who works in the home
theater section of the store, where DVD players cost from $399
to almost $1,000.
Another sales assistant, Michael, said: "We still sell HD
DVD's but we are telling customers that Blu-ray won."
And in a sign that Main Street has already anointed Sony
the winner, Blu-ray disc prices were slashed drastically at
both Best Buy and at the next-door Circuit City Stores Inc
(CC.N), another of America's huge consumer electronics stores.
Both stores' fliers for their President's Day sales
prominently featured select movie titles such as "300,"
"Ocean's Thirteen" and "The Departed" in Blu-ray format.
Best Buy had the same deals, with some Blu-ray titles as
low as $14.99. "I have never seen Blu-rays on sale like this
before," said Bonetti at Best Buy.
On Saturday, a Toshiba source told Reuters the Japanese
company is planning to give up on its HD DVD format, conceding
defeat to Blu-ray.
Separate consortiums led by Toshiba and Sony have battled
for years to set the standard for the next-generation DVD and
compatible video equipment.
The war, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the
1980s, was blamed for slowing the growth of what is expected to
be a multibillion dollar high-definition DVD industry.
Stephanie Prange, editor in chief of Home Media Magazine,
said the war's end should boost high-def DVD adoption.
"It would definitely help. The two formats, though both
were good, have confused consumers and prevented them from
moving into the high-def future," she said.
Prange said Sony, which lost its Betamax bid, had its ducks
in a row for the current format war. It lined up early studio
support and included a Blu-ray player in its new PlayStation 3
video game system, creating an instant customer base.
"This time I guess they learned from their mistakes,"
Prange said of Sony.
Toshiba suffered several setbacks in recent weeks,
including Friday's announcement by retailing giant Wal-Mart
Stores Inc (WMT.N) that it would abandon the HD DVD format and
only stock Blu-ray movies.
"Toshiba's plan all along was to be the low-price version.
If Wal-Mart isn't going to sell their players, who will?"
Prange said, noting that Wal-Mart calls itself the low-price
leader.
Akeem, the Circuit City sales assistant, said he was still
selling lots of players in each format. And for customers who
did not necessarily care about the format, there is a model by
LG, selling for $599, that plays both HD and Blu-ray.
And Best Buy's Michael said some people were buying Toshiba
units, even though they know Blu-ray will be the format of the
future. "They figure that HD discs will become cheaper."
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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