Best Buy Willing to Pay for YOUR Mistake?

image from www.bestbuy.com

via CNN Tech

HD-DVD has recently met its end, and many customers who jumped the gun and went with HD-DVD in recent months feel jipped.  Best Buy, one of the nation’s largest electronics retailers, will be giving away $50 US gift-cardsto any customers that have recently purchased an HD-DVD player from them.  CNN estimates this will cost the company upwards of $10 Million US.  So what’s the catch? 

Best Buy also has an HD-DVD player trade-in programthat allows customers to turn in “gently used” HD-DVD players in exchange for gift-cards.

Why on earth is Best Buy just giving away gift-cards like this? Well, with HD-DVD’s recent demise, release of new Blu-Ray features, and the BDA refusing to license Blu-Ray to Chinese manufacturers, prices of current and future Blu-Ray players are on the rise. 

So Best Buy feels that consumers will turn around and use the gift-cards on the more expensive Blu-Ray players.  With the great disparity in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray player price, Best Buy is expecting to make up on the $10 Million US hit in no time.

I guess it’s more like you will be paying for HD-DVD’s mistakes.  Thanks Toshiba.