Posted by Phil on 01/25/08 15:47

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Industry_Trends/High-Def_Retailing/NPD:_Free_Blu-ray_Players_Contributed_to_Weekly_Hardware_Lead/1403

http://www.betanews.com/article/print/NPD_Free_Bluray_player_deals_led_to_boosted_sales_this_month/1201203983

That 93% lead for Blu-ray in hardware sales in the week following Warner's
exclusivity announcement? NPD (the research group that tallied the numbers)
says don't read too much into it. That's according to a new article at
BetaNews, which quotes an NPD official as saying that a series of free
player bundles led to inflated weekly numbers for team Blu. Explaining that
the weekly data had not been approved for release by the research group,
Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD, cautioned
against making any long-term judgments based on the weekly numbers,
explaining that NPD sees large fluctuations in numbers like these each week.

Baker went on to attribute the week's Blu-ray gains to several deals from
Sony, Sharp and Panasonic that saw free Blu-ray players bundled with the
purchase of new HDTVs. He said that player sales for Samsung (which did not
offer a free Blu-ray player deal) were "almost non-existent" for the week.
All of this is not to say that it was a good week for HD DVD hardware sales.
Although Baker declined to get into specifics, he did confirm a drop in
overall HD DVD player sales for the week.


A report from NPD Group claimed Blu-ray standalone player sales accounted
for 93 percent of the high-def market for the week ending January 12, but
NPD itself won't stand behind the numbers, saying they were leaked and that
weekly sales data is not a long-term indicator. According to Stephen Baker,
vice president of industry analysis for NPD, the data "came from an NPD
subscriber" and "wasn't approved for release from NPD." He added that the
firm typically sees big fluctuations in sales volumes each week, and never
makes long-term judgements based on weekly data.

"It reflects what was going on during that week," Baker said, adding that it
wasn't smart to "extrapolate that out for six months."

So what went on the week ending January 12 that led to such high numbers in
Blu-ray standalone player sales? Bundling deals with HDTVs, explained Baker.
Sharp Blu-ray players accounted for over 30% of sales, as they were offered
free to buyers of the company's LCD televisions.

Sony -- also accounting for one-third of sales -- had a similar $400-off
deal for Blu-ray players when buying a Sony HDTV.

Panasonic, like Sharp, offered a free Blu-ray player and made up for the
remaining third of units sold. Samsung Blu-ray sales were almost
non-existent, as the company did not offer any special deals to TV buyers.

The NPD figures did not include Sony's PlayStation 3 or Microsoft's HD DVD
add-on for the Xbox 360 -- only standalone players.

Baker wouldn't get specific -- since NPD normally never even comments on
weekly sales data -- but said there was some drop in HD DVD player sales.
For its part, the HD DVD Promotional Group told BetaNews the weekly sales
data was from before the HD DVD player price drop Toshiba announced last
week.

Baker did provide BetaNews some insight as to how NPD counts sales. It
receives its data from point-of-sale systems from a number of retail outlets
across the United States. He would not say how many retailers send data to
NPD, but said it was "double digits."

NPD's numbers do not include online sales from the likes of Amazon, where
Toshiba's HD-A3 HD DVD player is the number one seller in the DVD player
category and number 14 in all of electronics. By contrast, standalone
Blu-ray players do not make the electronics list.

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