Toshiba is one of the biggest actors behind the optical storage format HD DVD and so far the only manufacturer to have successfully launched a stationary player for this format. Even if the price of the player are not as high as the comnig Blu-ray players they cost a lot more than most of today’s DVD players. Now it has surfaced information that says that the relatively high retail price for Toshiba’s HD-A1 HD DVD player is not high enough for the company to make any profit, more like a great loss. It’s the analyst company iSuppli that has dissected the player to see what the final cost would be; $674, well over the listed retail price at $499. Then the installation costs, PR and similar have to be accounted for making the final cost well beyond $700.
One of the reasons for the high manufacturing cost is that Toshiba’s player uses a regular desktop processor and comes with several other expensive components.
“The Toshiba HD-A1 is basically a combination of a low-end PC and a high-end DVD player,” said Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and senior analyst for iSuppli, in a statement.”
Toshiba is suffering badly from this but at the same time it has gained a very important advantage against Blu-ray, which hasn’t even entered the retail market yet and is expected to do so at a much higher price.
