News
Sony: $299 Blu-ray Player In 3 Years
Company executives say price declines will follow DVD history.
By Phillip Swann
Washington, D.C. (January 17, 2007) -- Waiting for those $999 Blu-ray players to drop under $500?
Well, you may have to wait awhile. Sony says it could be three years before the player drops to $299 or $399.
In an interview with CNET's News.com, Sony President Stan Glasgow noted that DVD player prices took a few years before they reached more affordable levels.
"If you go back to when DVDs came into play, it took about three years until they got into price points of $299 to $399. I suspect it's about the same thing here with Blu-ray. I think it's going to take up to three years to get down to those price points, possibly a little longer," Glasgow said.
Glasgow added that Sony had some control over the player's components, but needed more sales volume to drop prices.
"Once you get volumes up, you get yields up, and you get efficiencies up; the prices go down on the components," he told the web site.
Toshiba's low-end HD-DVD player is now priced at $499 and company executives hinted recently that $399 and $299 prices could come within the next year.
The cheapest Blu-ray player currently on the market is the low-end PlayStation 3, priced at $499. Most Blu-ray players retail for nearly $1,000.
In the same interview, Sony CEO Howard Stringer defended PS3, which has a Blu-ray player inside. Despite some early bumps, one million PS3 have been shipped in North America and Stringer said the game console will give Blu-ray a big edge over HD-DVD.
"I'd say 90 percent of the people who (own) PS3s are playing that Blu-ray disc on it or playing other Blu-ray discs on it," Stringer told News.com. "Contrary to some of the reports, it is an effective Blu-ray player. The people who like Blu-ray are the people who play PlayStation 3, just as people who play PS2s were the early proponents of the DVD format. It drove the DVD format."
Stringer also dismissed LG's new dual-format player, which will retail for $1199. He said it was "an expensive way of showing universal discs."
Sony: $299 Blu-ray Player In 3 Years
Company executives say price declines will follow DVD history.
By Phillip Swann
Washington, D.C. (January 17, 2007) -- Waiting for those $999 Blu-ray players to drop under $500?
Well, you may have to wait awhile. Sony says it could be three years before the player drops to $299 or $399.
In an interview with CNET's News.com, Sony President Stan Glasgow noted that DVD player prices took a few years before they reached more affordable levels.
"If you go back to when DVDs came into play, it took about three years until they got into price points of $299 to $399. I suspect it's about the same thing here with Blu-ray. I think it's going to take up to three years to get down to those price points, possibly a little longer," Glasgow said.
Glasgow added that Sony had some control over the player's components, but needed more sales volume to drop prices.
"Once you get volumes up, you get yields up, and you get efficiencies up; the prices go down on the components," he told the web site.
Toshiba's low-end HD-DVD player is now priced at $499 and company executives hinted recently that $399 and $299 prices could come within the next year.
The cheapest Blu-ray player currently on the market is the low-end PlayStation 3, priced at $499. Most Blu-ray players retail for nearly $1,000.
In the same interview, Sony CEO Howard Stringer defended PS3, which has a Blu-ray player inside. Despite some early bumps, one million PS3 have been shipped in North America and Stringer said the game console will give Blu-ray a big edge over HD-DVD.
"I'd say 90 percent of the people who (own) PS3s are playing that Blu-ray disc on it or playing other Blu-ray discs on it," Stringer told News.com. "Contrary to some of the reports, it is an effective Blu-ray player. The people who like Blu-ray are the people who play PlayStation 3, just as people who play PS2s were the early proponents of the DVD format. It drove the DVD format."
Stringer also dismissed LG's new dual-format player, which will retail for $1199. He said it was "an expensive way of showing universal discs."
