OPINION: Box battle
By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 8/29/2008
AUG. 29 | YOU HAVE TO WONDER if this is what studio backers of Blu-ray Disc, during its long battle with HD DVD, had in mind. Heading into the format’s first holiday selling period with the field to itself, Blu-ray hardware makers seem to be focusing most of their attention not on the mass market but on high-end home-theater models carrying sticker prices five to six times higher than any plausible mass-market price point.
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda
In the last couple of weeks, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sony, Yamaha, Samsung, JVC and others have announced new Blu-ray players ranging from a list price of $500 (Samsung) to more than $2,200 (Pioneer).
Some of the announcements, to be sure, were timed for the annual CEDIA custom-installer expo, which opens next week in Denver, and are clearly aimed at that rarefied slice of the market.
Nor do the latest announcements mean hardware makers have abandoned the lower end of the market. Most (though by no means all) have introductory models in the $399 range, and further price cuts could be announced at CEDIA.
But with the studios planning and hoping for a big fourth quarter, complete with several major Blu-ray releases, they can’t be thrilled to see so much of their hardware partners’ R&D, manufacturing and marketing resources going toward a niche that will do little to build the overall installed base of Blu-ray players.
Read the full column on ContentAgenda.com.
