HD DVD Player Sales Top 100,000 in US

HD DVD announced it is the first of either format to reach 100,000 stand-alone players sold in the US market, saying Tuesday the price drop helped to spur sales of the product. Not included are PC or Xbox 360 drive sales.

It is said those products are also selling strongly as well, meaning the actual number of HD DVD players sold is likely significantly higher than that number. It is also the first time sales numbers on either format hardware has ever been released.

Shortly after Sony's announcement that it would ship a $599 Blu-ray player in the summer, Toshiba countered with a price drop on its entry-level player to $399. The format already has a low-cost option on the market, a $199 add-on drive for the Xbox 360.

"Retailers are showing a significant increase in sales volume this month so far," Toshiba's marketing chieft Jodi Sally said. 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."

Along with the announcement of its success in hardware sales, The HD DVD Promotional Group also noted that it had nearly 70 titles set to debut before the end of July, with more than 300 movies available by the summer.