The tough competition (read war) between the two next-generation HD formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray is far from being over, as each side tries to employ every trick in the book and every means necessary in order to secure for itself even the slightest advantage. And it seems that the aggressive manner in which the two formats are promoted has begun to pay up, at least for HD DVD, that is, and only on American soil.

Thus, according to the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, HD DVD is significantly ahead in the dedicated consumer electronics player market with 60% of all high definition set-top players sold. At the same time, the group states, high definition movie sales for HD DVD reached an all time high for the month of May, exceeding 75,000 movies the last week of May.

But what drove so many people to rush-in and purchase HD DVD movies? The first and most important reason is probably the fact the Toshiba's HD DVD player, the HD-A2, has recorded a significant price drop back in April, now retailing for a more accessible $399 than the previous $499 price tag. Thus, since more people can afford the player, more people can purchase the movie discs. It's a simple marketing rule, which seems to have worked very well for HD DVD.

"Toshiba's latest promotional efforts are clearly resonating with consumers and showing that price is king when it comes to hardware," said Craig Kornblau, chairman of the North American HD DVD Promotional Group. "Behind the increase in sales for hardware and movies, you're seeing fundamentally lower manufacturing costs and ease of authoring for HD DVD. That's the type of model that can scale."

However, as mentioned in the beginning of this article, the figures apply for North America alone. The situation at global level is a bit different, and we'll just have to wait a while longer before being able to declare a winner in the race between the two competing formats.

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