News outlets are always anxious to offer breaking news to their readers. But how fast is too fast? Our friends at Engadget reported that Wal*Mart had made a blockbuster purchase of HD-DVD players. Big enough to have an effect on the viability of the format.
"Get ready to get your cheap HD on kids. Wal-Mart just threw down some serious green for a batch of Chinese-made HD DVD players. Just as they brought DVD players down to near-disposable status, their deal for 2 million HD DVD players produced by China's Great Wall corporation will ultimately do the same for hi-def optical. The guts are developed by Taiwan's Fuh Yuan with a touch of help from Japan's TDK. How much? A magical $299, that's how much -- $100 less than the cheapest available HD DVD rig Toshiba's A2 and half of Sony's $600BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player. It's not clear when we'll see the first units on Wal-Mart shelves, only that the final shipment from the order is expected before 2008 is over. "
There might be a problem, of course. Or not. We were reading the source for this item also: Akihabara News. They have an interesting update on their page:
"A big thanks to Finn for the info !
According to the Chinese medias, Taiwan based company Fuh Yuan in cooperation with TDK, should produce 2 millions Blu-Ray players for Walmart, representing a deal of around 100 million dollars.
--- Sorry for the previous News but we were lost in the transaltion, We had to read Blu-Ray HD DVD... an in Chinese it is ?? = blue ray ---"
Hmm. So I think it's clear now. Wal*Mart may or may not be selling Blu-Ray or HD-DVD players for $299.00, and this may or may not be the end for HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray. TDK is involved, so perhaps it's a cassette player...
Lost in transaltion ?