Toshiba shift nearly 100,000 HD DVD players in the U.S. last weekend

San Jose (CA) - Toshiba has announced that it sold 90,000 HD DVD players between last Friday and Sunday, thanks to sub-$100 players offered by U.S. stores, Best Buy and Wal-Mart, according to trade publication Video Business.

Toshiba’s HD-A2 is the lowest priced standalone high-def disc player, and last weekend that was made even more evident when Wal-Mart announced a special one-day sales to bring the price down to $98. The discount retailer normally sells the player for around $200.

In a seemingly immediate reactionary move, Best Buy decided to clear out its existing stock of HD-A2 players, marking the price permanently down to $100. However, most locations sold out within hours.

Media reports said that other, more local retailers also marked down their price to match Best Buy and Wal-Mart.

Because of its price advantage, sales of specific standalone HD DVD players have consistently been ahead of similar Blu-ray sales numbers. For example, Video Business reports the three-day sales of HD DVD players was greater than Sony’s BDP-S300 Blu-ray player over the past several months. The S300 is the top-selling Blu-ray player aside from the Playstation 3.

Of course, because of the PS3, Sony has been more easily able to convert people into Blu-ray adopters and has handily taken the lead in overall HD disc market share.