Simple: consumers who dont' know better.
The massive amounts of cheap HD-DVD players that flooded the market this holiday season was indicator enough that Toshiba was clearing inventory for the inevitable, however for others who read the same add saw it as an oppurtunity to make a "good deal". O if that were only the case. So they bought the product, bought a ton of cheaper consumable media and may have felt good about it up until now.
I still feel fine about it..so you pay 100 bucks for a player even if the format died today, you still have a dvd player and you can enjoy all the previouslly released hd content......