The European HD DVD Promotional Group claimed it had 74% market share in Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Spain & Switzerland for stand-alone players, according to market research group GfK.

The HD DVD group, led by Toshiba & backed by Microsoft & film studios including Warner Bros, declined to give figures for how many players it had shipped to retail outlets in Europe.

Olivier Van Vieandal, Toshiba’s spokesman for the European HD DVD group, said recent surveys had shown 70% of consumers would be prepared to buy a HD player once prices fall below 200 euros.

“You can’t get to mass-market consumption until you get to mass-market pricing” said Steve Nickerson (Warner Bros spokesman for the HD DVD group)

Toshiba cut prices for its HD-E1 HD DVD player to 399 euros. Sony has started selling their Blu-ray player BDP-S1E, with a price tag of 900 euros. For most Europeans HD DVD seems an obvious choice because of the lower prices.

Although these figures seems very positive for the European DVD lobby group, these figures doesn't show the sales of the cheapest Blu-ray player; the Playstation 3, because the research does only shows the stand-alone players.