Toshiba giving away HD DVD players with LCD TV purchase... in Australia
By Darren Murph 
posted December 21st 2007 5:36PM
posted December 21st 2007 5:36PM
posted December 21st 2007 5:36PM
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can we say desperate?
Like Panasonic's deal at best buy last week?
Can we say have a nice hot glass of STFU.
This is a great marketing campaign!
Nothing new here...Sony has been giving away BD Players with a purchase of a HDTV also.
Didn't Sony also bundle PS3's with TV's at one point or another?
Personally, this is what i think Tosh should be doing globally.
If they want to win this war, they need to go for the throat sooner rather then later, and this Trojan horse route would be a winner.
If Tosh bundled the A30 with every Tosh TV sold internationally, not only would they sell a heap of HD DVD players, but a lot of extra TVs as well, in doing so covering the cost of giving the player away.
Because of HD DVDs price advantage, this could be done on a very cost effective scale, and it is only something the BDA is likely to do on run out models eg Panasonic because of there higher cost structures.
HD4ME:
The problem in your strategy, is that toshiba is almost the worst HDTV seller in the market...Specialy in asia. SONY/SAMSUNG/SHARP Are the leader, then behind you can find LG/PHILIPS/PIONEER. So all in all, if free drives are bundled with in toshiba and pioneer tvs, Blu still win. And if ever samsung or sony do the same, at the same time...The war would be over.
Toshiba in all asia, is an almost non existent brand, except in japan. Samsung Sony and LG are by far, the most selling in A/V. In the states, Again Sony sharp and samsung. And europe, Philips samsung and LG.
So all in all, if ever the blu camp is willing to loose monstruous amount of money on their stand alone sales ( you realy believe that Toshiba's player cost that cheap ? ) like the only actor of the red camp, their will be blood. And we all know its colour.
It's about time the HD DVD camp did something to turn up the heat down under. Blu Ray has had a big start, having secured exclusive rights with major retailers. In the meantime, HD DVD has been promoting price point as an advantage. But the cheapest HD DVD option, the Xbox360 player, hasn't had the benefit of the extra 5 free discs that are offered in the US. The whole marketing approach is hap-hazard.
looks like they have been readin the news and know about the faliure of hd dvd penetration down under...
Yes of course this is just an obvious and expected marketing angle.
@ iBalls
It's true Aus did see one of its largest CE retailers publicly go Blu-ray exclusive.......but then they had to back-track a couple of months later and be sensible about this and start selling HD DVD too.
....and in the UK, I've just seen Tesco in Perivale (West London) giving away a tall pile of HD-DVD players away with Toshiba LCD TV's.
Pete.
D... e... s... p... e... r... a... t... i... o... n...
Nothing new here, Sony is giving PS3s away with their Bravia LCDs at JB-HiFi too.
Must be a firesale /Sarcasm