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RE: In Australia, Toshiba's effective RRP may actually have risenâ€¦

Posted by David Aiken on January 24, 2008 at 00:32:57:
Their Australian web page shows 3 models, the HD-E1-K-TY; the HD-EP10 K-TY; and the HD-XE1-K-TY available in Australia. I've listed those in price order from cheapest to dearest.

I also saw a comment in an article from our local paper available onlineâ€”see linkâ€”which suggests that they're selling a machine here in Australia at $299 Australian with 4 movies but I've never seen that offer. It would have to be their cheapest machine, the E1, and I've only seen it advertised with a cash back offer that's now disappeared from their web page.

For your interest, the web page for their Australian models showing Australian prices is at:

http://www.toshibaav.com.au/products_hddvd.html

They certainly have been out of touch with reality here in Australia since the initial HD DVD release which didn't occur until January 2007, 2 months after BD released machines and discs here. The result of that strategy is quite evident in the relative market strength data in the news article: BD apparently had 95.2% of the Australian HD player market by October last year and selling 87,000 discs to HD DVD's 14,400 in the same time. That's a staggering market lead for BD despite HD DVD having slightly cheaper player prices, but it's important to note that in Australia their player prices were only slightly cheaper than BD. Pricing on the bottom of the line machine always seemed to hover at around $100 Australianâ€”$85-90 US depending on exchange rate over the last yearâ€”cheaper than the PS3. I never saw HD DVD players at anywhere near the fraction of the PS3 price that they seemed to sell for in the US. In fact, in roughly 12 months I think I've actually seen only 1 machine that I can remember in a real store. They've basically been invisible here as well as much dearer relatively than in the US.

David Aiken