14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war is far from being over, and just as things started to look better, something had to happen to bring all of the happy consumers back to the ground. There was talk of a deal between Wal-Mart and Fuh Yuan Electronics Development, in which they said Wal-Mart was going for an order of two million HD-DVDs, which were to be manufactured by China Great Wall Group. In a statement recently released, Fuh Yuan group corrected their previous statement, in which they said they had a "two million HD-DVD players order from Wal-Mart".
The withdrawal also has some other powerful implications, which add some to the entire picture; by saying that Wal-Mart's "always low prices" would apply to HD-DVD players, would mean that this fact might tip the balance in favor of this format, making the general public believe that this is the way to go, I mean, if that's what Wal-Mart is going to do, it would only make sense, right? Wrong, because Wal-Mart is also heavily exploiting Blu-ray player sales, and they want to take advantage of both formats.
There is also the price issue, as apparently the costs for manufacturing an HD-DVD player are high, the retail price cannot descend below a certain value, otherwise the company will not have a profit, and that's not good business. Toshiba, for instance, has a $399 player, which is said to be "sold below cost", that would mean Wal-Mart's $299 player would wreak havoc in the entertainment industry. There was something in Fuh Yuan's statement, it was said that they were asked to provide the schedule to Wal-Mart, and determine the cost for more than two million players, and also determine if "the cost is good enough and timing is correct". That means we haven't heard the last of a low-priced HD-DVD player.