Quote:
MrPorterhouse wrote:
 What you have to realize is that within the buffett of Blu-ray manufacturers, there is great competition to sell players. I don't think any manufacturer wants to give an edge to the competitors. You will continue to see fierce competition between Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp, Samsung, and then you throw in the budget China players and you'll see prices continue to drop. Also, you have the high end jumping on board, with Denon and Marantz Blu-ray players that will satisfy your high end enthusiasts. |
One sign of a major price drop is LG's dual format computer drive. If they can sell a dual format HD DVD/BD drive for $299 and make a profit, cheaper player prices for single formats are on the horizon.
Sony has a unique part and role in all of this and could really put this to bed for good if they followed the model of the cell phone industry. Unlike Toshiba, Sony makes a lot of money on movie sales and distribution. They realistically could slash the prices of players and make back any losses with content. Cell phone providers do it all the time by giving basic phones away for free and then make their money back on service contracts. No... I'm not saying Sony should or would 'give' players away, but they certainly should and could build an entry level player that sells for under $100. If Sony were to do this, it would force the competing manufacturers to also reduce prices and that would be nothing but good.
My biggest fear in the whole format war thing isn't Sony winning or HD DVD winning, but us losing. If two formats remain and studios are divided, then mass consumer adoption will be slow to happen if at all. That leaves the door cracked for inferior download/On Demand content that ultimately will cost more and deliver inferior quality. Granted mp3's don't cost 'more', but quality did take a hit and a lot of people don't realize it. I don't ever expect to see movie prices drop to that of mp3's so we would have a lesser quality product at a premium price, and as I said, that is my fear.