Tokyo - Japanese market research company iSuppli Japan K.K has said that Toshiba was selling its HD-DVD player at a major loss. This underselling is an apparent attempt to gain substantial market share before Sony gets its Blu Ray players onto the market, the report said.

The report added that based on the components, the actual price of the HD-DVD player was at least $700 as opposed to the $499 that Toshiba is currently marketing them at. This conclusion was arrived at by iSuppli after dismantling a player and estimating the costs of the components.

Toshiba’s aggressive marketing strategy even at a loss probably underlines its intentions to gain a good foothold in the market before Sony unleashes its Blu Ray players. Toshiba’s players were released in March, while Samsung of South Korea unveiled its first Blu Ray player recently. Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and other companies are planning to release Blu Ray players by autumn this year.

ISuppli said that the market for the new DVDs will explode to 65 million units by 2010 although it is not clear which company will emerge victorious. Meanwhile Toshiba announced that it would begin selling its first recorders for the HD DVD high-definition videodisc by August end. The company said that the Japanese markets would be targeted on July 14 and the price of a recorder was 398,000 yen (US$3,470).