Sony To Launch $599 Blu-ray Player
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Sony is planning to hit the HD DVD camp square between the eyes with a midsummer Blu-ray player price cut that Sony hopes will earn it the next-gen DVD championship belt.
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(InfoWorld) - Visitors to the IFA consumer electronics show, which opens Friday in Berlin, will have ringside seats to the war over high-definition disc formats raging between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. As the two formats duel for the title of successor to current DVD movie discs, many European consumers haven't decided which kind of player they will buy. "Everyone is waiting for IFA where many new products are expected to be announced," said Frank Simonis, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc have sold in lower quantities in Europe than in other regions and prices are still relatively high, between â¬599 (US$814 ) and â¬899, according to Simonis. Currently, five manufacturers have launched Blu-ray Disc players in Europe, including Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic). Five additional vendors are expected to launch Blu-ray Disc players at IFA, while companies with players already in the market plan to introduce devices with new features, Simonis said. Many of the manufacturers are major suppliers of HDTV sets and hope to leverage that expertise to "accelerate the adoption of Blu-ray Disc," he said. The format has received a big boost from its use in Sony's PlayStation 3 games console, with sales of more than 1.4 million units in Europe, according to Simonis. The HD DVD camp is also bringing new wares to IFA, according to Frank Eschholz, business development manager of HD DVD products at Sony Deutschland GmbH. "There will be new devices and new features and more." Both types of players are designed with many of the same components inside and offer many of the same features, according to Simonis. But one of Blu-ray Disc's key benefits is its ability to store up to 50G bytes of data, he said. "Studios want to pack a bunch of extras onto discs in addition to the movies, and Blu-ray Disc allows them to do so," he said. The Blu-ray Disc camp, however, was jolted when Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced last week that they would align themselves exclusively with the HD DVD high-definition format. The decision comes at a time when market indicators have been pointing to competitor Blu-ray Disc as having the lead. In addition to next-generation movie-disc players, visitors to this year's IFA can expect to see plenty of HDTV sets, camcorders, digital cameras, MP3 players and notebook computers. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will introduce new products in all those categories, according to a spokeswoman. The company may launch two handsets as well, she said. Sony has decided to return to IFA after its absence last year, with plans to exhibit new Blu-ray Disc players, new Walkman music players and HDTV sets, according to a spokeswoman. More information about IFA -- the letters stand for Internationale Funkausstellung, although the full name is rarely used these days -- is available at the show's Web site .
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(InfoWorld) - Vendors supporting HD DVD are cutting prices to boost their products, which are vying with Blu-ray disc technology to replace current DVD movie discs. Next month, consumers can expect to find a range of entry-level players priced at around â¬300 ($409), the HD DVD Promotional Group announced Friday at theÂ IFA international consumer electronics show in Berlin. The price is nearly half of what many entry models in Europe currently cost, said Oliver Van Wynendaele, a manager in Toshiba's HD DVD group. Canada's Venturer Electronics plans to launch its SHD-7000 player at around â¬300 next month, while Toshiba will offer its HD-EP30 model for around â¬350, Van Wynendaele said. Toshiba will also give buyers five free discs. Toshiba will begin equipping its notebook PCs with HD DVD drives in the fourth quarter, according to Yoshihide Fujii, Toshiba corporate senior vice president and president and CEO of the company's digital media network unit.
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Prospects for a resolution to the high-definition DVD format war seemed to come into sharper focus on Monday as Best Buy and Netflix separately announced plans to promote Sony's Blu-ray format over Toshiba's HD DVD.
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Sony catches the technology industry off-guard by slashing $100 off the price of its new Blu-ray player.
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Watch out, Toshiba Samsung will launch its promised dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc player in Europe next month, the company has said, and industry insiders are already claiming the machine could be priced at just â¬400 ($548/Â£271).â¦
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Sony Corp. said Monday it is bringing out a cheaper player for Blu-ray discs early this summer, a crucial step in its battle to make the high-definition format the replacement for DVDs.
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Toshiba announced an aggressive campaign to bolster its HD DVD movie disc format against Sony-backed Blu-ray technology, cutting prices on players to as low as $149.99.
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Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it   would launch an HD DVD player for its Xbox 360 game console on   November 22 in Japan for 20,790 yen ($177), matching rival Sony   Corp.'s PlayStation 3 in high-definition DVD functions.
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Sony said Thursday that it will begin shipping its latest Blu-ray disc player in October, the BDP-S500 in Europe, the higher-end cousin to its BDP-S300 model which will also be shipping in the region.
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Sony announced yesterday that it has developed Blu-Ray (BD) disc production technology that will be enable the company to produce Blu-Ray discs at half the cost of DVDs.
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As part of an ongoing effort to get more people to use the next-generation Blu-ray format, Sony will be shipping a new, lower-cost player at some point in the next few months.
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TOKYO, Feb. 18 -- Toshiba appears ready to ditch its HD DVD business, positioning Sony's Blu-ray technology as the likely winner in the format battle for the next generation of DVD players.
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Sony said Monday that it now had six production lines in operation producing the company's 50GB Blu-ray disc. Production will be ramped up to 60,000 discs per day, the company said.
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Blog: Originally announced at $599, the BDP-S300 model next-gen DVD player will sell for $499 when it ships this week.
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Four proponents of high-definition DVD technology will invite component manufacturers to join a group set up to help speed its commercialization, while Sony has confirmed that it will use blue lasers in its next Playstation console.
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CHIBA, Japan  - Sony Corp. 6758.T said on   Tuesday it would launch its Blu-ray high-definition optical   disc recorder in Japan in December with an expected price tag   of around 300,000 yen ($2,550) for a model with a 500-gigabyte   hard disk drive.