Sony is at it again. Apparently, Sony Electronics’ home products’ division vice president Randy Waynick recently mentioned that they’re taking the Format War to the HD-DVD camp by dropping the cost of their Next-Generation Blu-Ray player down to a measly $599 flat by mid-2007. Such a move is definitely appealing to consumers, but could this tactic have some side effects for the media conglomerate?
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Sony’ s next-gen Blu-Ray player, the BDP-S300, is set to arrive in mid-2007; sporting a number of improvements over their first foray into standalone Blu-Ray devices by Sony: the BDP-S1. With a form factor about that of a regular DVD player, the BDP-S300 is quite a bit smaller than the large BDP-S1 (http://www.sizeasy.com/page/comp/893), but it also has a couple features not present in the S1. Most notably, the capability to play standard audio CDs.
The biggest question mark in this whole equation, however, comes from the Playstation 3. With either a price tag of $499 or $599, depending on the size of the included hard drive, it is already cheaper than current or future Blu-Ray players. One of the main selling points of the PS3 is that is has embedded Blu-Ray support, something that has no doubt been influential on the current sales of the console, but could a Sony system with comparable abilities put pressure on one of its own products? The BDP-S1 is tremendously expensive already, at around $1000 USD, but while the price drop in Blu-Ray disc players is big news, I suspect that those looking for a bargain will again turn to the PS3 for a budget player that has all kinds of other features.
The money that consumers save by getting a low-end PS3 instead of the approaching S300 can easily go out and spend that money on Blu-Ray movies and games for their new system, instead of waiting and shelling out more cash. While there is a price where mostly all people will go out and by something based on it’s worth, I’m not sure that Sony Electronics has reached this price point yet, not to mention the heat that Toshiba’s recent HD-DVD bargain has put on the format. It’ll be interesting to see what Sony gets from this deal in a few months, but until then, we have to wait and watch.
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