HD DVD wins 60 percent of market through price cuts?

The HD DVD Promotional Group stepped up the battle of words today by claiming that more than half of all next-generation movie players sold use its format, giving the technology an edge over its Blu-Ray challenger. About 60 percent of all movie players use HD DVD, and are selling far more titles than before as well. Over 75,000 of the discs sold in the last week of May -- a record achievement for a still new format, the group says.

The spikes are primarily the result of recent price cuts for the entry-level HD-A2 and other players, according to the backers of the HD DVD standard. While reluctant to discuss sales before the surge, the group notes that sales doubled for all players when the HD-A2's price dropped to $399 in April; it doubled again with the late May promotion but has yet to slow down, the group reports.

No mention was made of whether or not the sales figures included Sony's PlayStation 3, which is considered a game console but can perform many of the same tasks as a dedicated movie player, eliminating the need in some cases for separate hardware. The HD DVD promoters also did not mention whether the statistic included the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player attachment.