HD DVD and Blu-ray players are dropping below the $500 mark, and Taiwan manufacturers reckon the number of sub-$500 players is set to rise as we head towards the second half of this year.
In the US, Samsung dropped the retail price of its BP-1000 to $469.99 in March, while Toshiba's HD-A2 HD-DVD player was nudged down to $399 to compete. DigiTimes reports that a price war is looming, citing Taiwanese manufacturers as the source of such claims.
It's believed that towards the second half of this year, more manufacturers will have blue-laser products retailing below the $500 mark... in the US of course. What does that mean for us? We can hope it means the UK gets to enjoy plenty of sub-£500 players.
$500 is, apparently, considered an indicator of market acceptance for optical drives, and the two blue-laser formats weren't expected to hit such pricing en-masse before the fourth quarter of this year. So, with both formats set to 'be accepted' a quarter or so early, are we any closer to working out which one will win? 'Course not! My money's still on Betamax making a comeback.
