HD DVD Hardware Sales Suffer Huge Decline Since CES

As sad as it may be for some people, the demise of HD DVD is becoming ever-clearer. Just yesterday, we posted about a petition that's going on, regarding Warner's decision to pull-out of the HD DVD camp. Since then, the total signatures have jumped up around 60% to 16,000, but the formats remaining fans may not be enough to save this battle.

According to the NPD research group, Blu-ray hardware has far surpassed sales of HD DVD hardware in the past few weeks. Prior to CES earlier this month, HD DVD held 48.83% of the hardware market, but since then, that number has decreased to a mere 7.47%. Ouch... there is no appropriate word for such a situation. Even with so many dual-format readers being sold, if HD DVD continues this quick decline, it won't be long before the remaining supporters consider their options.

The sudden shift is credited almost exclusively to Warner, whose decision to drop HD DVD releases will place more than 70 percent of all HD movies in the Blu-ray format when the switch takes effect in June. A number of retailers have already announced retail plans to scale back HD DVD shelf space or introduce HD to stores only in Blu-ray format since the Warner announcement.

Source: Electronista