That is the $64,000 question, as any follower of the current format war knows that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray fell far short of industry sales expectations. While the HD-DVD units are still quite high in relation to regular DVD units, if Toshiba prices aggressively, will this give HD-DVD a huge lead over Blu-ray? Here is what Yoshihide Fujii indicated might happen, who is president and CEO of Toshiba's digital media network company:
"At first, I thought the price threshold is $499. Maybe coming next is $399 and after that is $299." He didn't give a time frame for this possible drop in prices.
While it appears Toshiba would like to hold out as long as possible before dropping their prices (in hopes of sales increasing enough at the $499 level to keep from having to drop to $299 quickly just to entice buyers), dropping the price may very well give HD-DVD a nice lead over Blu-ray--which could balloon--especially if the HD-DVD 'hack' to defeat its DRM becomes widespread knowledge long before Blu-ray unit prices come down enough to lure the general public to purchase those. That said, it is hard to say what will happen in a world where profits reign supreme, and where Toshiba is a vigorous backer of DRM as well.
