RSSWal-Mart endeavors to lure customers to Blu-ray
By Ed Oswald | Published June 5, 2008, 4:56 PM
While Wal-Mart seemed to be firmly in the HD DVD camp early in the format war, it's now gearing up for a nationwide promotion to drum up interest in the format war's survivor.
With HD DVD out of the way, the world's largest retailer is now turning to Blu-ray and marketing it aggressively, even though the price of its players may be out of reach for a significant portion of its budget-conscious consumers.
Starting next Monday and running through Saturday, consumers who purchase a Blu-ray player from Wal-Mart will also be eligible to receive a $100 gift card valid for future purchases.
To supplement the promotion, the company is also increasing the number of Blu-ray players it carries. Currently it offers only two players: one from Sony (the BDP-S300) and one from Magnavox (the NB500MG9). Beginning next week, Samsung and Panasonic players will also be added to the mix.
Supporting the promotion will be sales on several Blu-ray titles, priced at $15. These include 3:10 to Yuma, 300, and The Fifth Element.
Early on, Wal-Mart had been working towards bringing low-cost HD DVD players to its stores, and was one of the leading companies behind a $99 player promotion during last year's holiday season. However, with Toshiba having given up on HD DVD -- and with the rest of the world happily following Toshiba's lead for once -- Wal-Mart decided in February that it would stop stocking both players and movies this month.
It's likely that this announcement alone may have hastened the format's death, considering the strong hold the Arkansas company has not only on retail sales, but on all print and multimedia publishers' production plans.
This week's announcement coincides with another from the retailer that indicates it has completed the redesign of its electronics department across the entire chain. In many of its stores, the new departments allow for more hands-on use of various products, including video games, computers, and GPS devices.
"We are excited to be a destination for families looking to create a high quality, affordable home entertainment experience with our new, wider selection of hi-def TVs, Blu-ray players and movies," home entertainment chief Gary Severson said in a statement.
HAHA!!
Danno wants you to believe that we are going to see online distributions of HD content, but the ISP's are in the process of limiting download bandwidths and charging overage fees as high as $1 per gig!....thats CRAZY!!...you want to start downloading 25+GB files when your going to be nailed like that?? haha!....
Maymne...
do you realize how much Toshiba was loosing per unit sold?...they were not making a profit on those $100 players...they were just getting KILLED by blu-ray in sales so badly that they needed to try anything they could in order to stay in the game...in the end, the fire sale didn't pay off and the format took a dump...
Setian^Stalker...you SURELY can compare the HD media situation to DVD....your logic would lead people to believe that because more people still own SDTV's that HDTV is a dead market and is going to cease to exist!...your logic is illogical to say the least...
i could not care less about Sony as a company...blu-ray won't take 10 years to surpass DVD, and the PS3 won't be around for 10 years...and the PS3 DOES have backwards compatibility....the 60GB, 20GB, and 80GB versions do...the 40GB does not...the BC issue is such a dead horse anyways...why don't you go complain about the fact that the 360 has some serious BS backwards compatibility to say the least...
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|I'm sure you have a point somewhere fanboy.
Comb your hair just right and fewer will notice.
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|"blu-ray won't take 10 years to surpass DVD"
Nope, because it won't last that long.
;-)
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|i could have said the same thing during the 7 years it took before DVD outsold VHS....but it would have been stupid then...and its stupid to say it about BD vs DVD now...
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|I'm sure your panties are still all in a bunch when your HD-DVD collection became obsolete...
its so funny how pouty the HD-DVD fanboys still are...
i couldn't have cared less which format "won"....all i wanted was a winner so i knew which format to keep buying...lol im just supporting high Def media because "good enough" fake upscaled HD is plain not good enough for me...
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|It's stupid to say BD anything yet.
DVD is still realistic, and BD (and every single HD technology like it other than broadcast or satellite) is still niche.
:-D
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|Meh, I'm still buying left over HD-DVDs, and for cheap too.
T3 on HD-DVD: $7.99
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|lol....
"your logic would lead people to believe that because more people still own SDTV's that HDTV is a dead market and is going to cease to exist!...your logic is illogical to say the least..."
I'm not even going to grant that a response, I think even a blu-ray cheerleader can see the stupidity in your original claim. Doesnt take a genius to understand. Only a blind fan would try and argue against what is bleeding obvious to everyone else.
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|"its so funny how pouty the HD-DVD fanboys still are...:
You totally discredited the rest of your post you do realise?
I'm guessing you are Joey right?
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|I have no interest in adopting Blu-ray anytime soon. I have a few hundred movie titles on standard DVD that look extremely good using an HTPC driving an HDTV.
I'll wait and see how the new chipset that converts standard DVD to HD fares out before I even start to consider switching over, especially at the current pricing for Blu-ray movies.
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|Who gives a f#%& about a $100 store credit?
That's not a savings!
Discounting the price $100 is a savings on an already far too high priced piece of gear with far too high priced media. And the prices of players has gone UP, not down!
No compelling reason to buy when you can get more than adequate performance from upscaled DVDs.
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|Yeah, let me know when they are down to 5 bucks a movie.
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|If the clientele at my Walmart are anything to go by they're still using VHS tapes, cassettes and 8 track.
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|I have heard that this also applies to the PS3. That will be the only Blu-Ray player I will buy. I don't care about the Blu-Ray part of it, I just want to play the games. :)
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|I have heard that this also applies to the PS3. That will be the only Blu-Ray player I will buy. I don't care about the Blu-Ray part of it, I just want to play the games. :)
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|If Wal-Mart can bring Blu-ray player prices down to $50 and disc prices down to $10, THEN I will buy them.
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|you people are just insane....it is still so early on in the this generation of disc media and you want them to match the prices of a media that has been out over 10 years!? thats crazy talk....when DVD was out for only 2-3 years there were no $100 players either!....
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|You can’t compare back when DVD was introduced to now though. The times are so very different, people are spending like never before.
It’s a completely different market these days.
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|your right Setian,
Darks got his head up Sony's A$$ that he is wants to believe it will take 10 years fo this format to explode (probably one of the same people who want the POS3 to stick around for 10 years instead of offering back compatability on the next gen console via software). Meanwhile the here in a place we call "real life" within that time the next format will have been born.
Case and point even a friend of mine whose in love with Bloray says that even he thinks the movement is going towards online and On Demand more because no one has the space for disks or wants to have such huge collections in their living room.
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|Yes, but 6 months ago there were 100$ HD-DVD players... That's the point. The (first) loser in the next-gen/dead-gen disk market had that price point already.
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|They won't be selling at that point and if the lawsuit against Bloray and HDDVD goes through your probably looking at an even longer period. Too bad for Toshiba
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|While $100 may not be enough for those simularly minded to people here, for families looking at entering the market a free $100 is always appealing.
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|Blu-Ray smells like Vista: it's the technology I don't need for my enjoyment. DVD/9 is good enough and cost far, far less. And the movies the studios set to lure your purchase is Bruce Willis-Michael Bay set. Like I want to see that wrinkled geezer on my screen. Now maybe if they sold 'Battlefield Earth' — HA!!
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|While it may not be a need, it is no doubt better than DVD9.(If you have an HDTV) The problem is they are pricing themselves out of the market and also not everybody has an HDTV. I'm not talking about in just players either. They discs are their biggest hurdle right now IMO. $35-40 is too much for a movie that cost $20 or less on DVD! Then not all the people that have an HDTV are willing to shell out the extra cash for Blu-Ray.
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|Well Transformers is supposed to be released on Blu-Ray in September. Megan Fox isn't a wrinkled geezer. I am sure there are plenty of people who wouldn't mind watching her on Blu-Ray.
Once there are more people with HDTVs to take advantage of the better picture quality you will see the prices come down and selection improve on Blu-Ray. Give it another six months to a year. Once the studios start releasing more of the older films in their libraries you will start seeing more titles that you actually want to watch available on Blu-Ray.
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|Considering that you're getting approximately double the resolution on Blu-Ray, $35-$40 doesn't sound that unreasonable. The higher quality the picture and sound the more movies should cost.
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|So what, most people probably can't see the difference anyway,and would they pay double the price to get a crappy movie,not in this economic climate. As far as perceived quality determining the price,the only reason for the $35 - $45 dollar price is the fact that because it is new technology and they can get away with justifying such a price,wait 6 months and buy the same movie for $20.
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|Not if they want to succeed it shouldn't. Sorry unless it is just an awesome movie it is not worth paying the extra $$$. Movies like Iron Man, Transformers, Pirates OTC, etc. "maybe." You can spin it how you want, but the simple fact is unless the prices go down Blu-Ray will continue on in the niche market just like all the other Sony formats.
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|If someone can't see the difference between 480p content and 1080p content then they're either a less technical person that doesn't know they need an HDTV or they have very poor eye sight. The difference is huge.
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|What a load of crap. Do you work for Hollywood studios or something? If you think the general public is going to adopt bluray with movies at $35 you are mistaken. Even the religious right over bluray.com complain about prices at $27. Many there refuse to pay that much so your claim is a joke.
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|if they try to sell me that joint for more than $115 they are F'ed
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|yea the fifth element... thats what will sell BD players.
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|Yeah, talk about adding salt to the wound.
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|$100 won't do it for me. They are far too expensive and it sounds like Sonys fault since they won't lower the price of Blu-ray. The players need to get to around $100 and I'll be likely to buy, but then the movies are $10+ more than DVD's. Its not worth the higher definition over DVD for the price.
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|Sony CANT lower prices. Its a matter of supply and demand. The same thing happened when DVD players were initially introduced. I remember paying 200 for an APEX player (Known as a low end brand of DVD Players) only 1.5 years into its existence. Prices will drop when the demand increases and more and more people make the move to an HDTV.
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|Not like Sony would lower prices anyway.
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|I don't believe that. They can lower prices, not lowering them is a choice.
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|"Prices will drop when the demand increases"
Seems like a chicken-egg issue. Many will say that unless prices come down, demand won't go up and if demand doesn't go up, they can't lower the prices.
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|Demand will increase when the price drops.
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|While a $100 gift card is a step in the right direction, it needs to be a $250 (or greater) instant savings or price drop before I'll consider it.
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