Panasonic launches BD Live player at $299
UPDATE: Set-top priced $100 lower than expected due to 'competition'
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 11/3/2008
NOV. 5 | Panasonic’s latest BD Live player, the DMP-BD35, launched priced $100 less than expected at $299, marking the first Web-enabled set-top to bow below the $399 PlayStation 3.
Circuit City is among retailers advertising the $299 DMP-BD35 as well as Panasonic’s more upscale new BD Live entry, the $399 DMP-BD55, in its Sunday newspaper circulars. During recent media demonstrations, Panasonic executives anticipated its entry BD Live model to be priced at $399.
“It’s the competition,” Panasonic spokesman Jeff Samuels said. “Originally, we thought it would be $399 and $499 [for the BD35 and BD55, respectively], but we wanted to compete with the PlayStation. And if you look around, the [set-top] competition is coming out with lower and lower pricing. Everybody is jockeying for sales during the holiday season.”
To this point, the similarly Web-enabled PS3 offered the cheapest out-of-box BD Live player. Sony’s BDP-S350 and Samsung’s BD-P1500, both now $299, are considered BD Live-ready but won’t playback Web interactivity without firmware updates. Manufacturers made these downloadable upgrades available in recent weeks for the players, which had been tagged at $399 for much of 2008.
Samsung’s own automatic BD Live models, the BD-2500 and BD-2550, recently launched at $399.
Best Buy’s Insignia and Wal-Mart’s Magnavox Blu-ray players, both built with the same Funai Corp. machinery, also are being quickly slashed in price. Now at $199 and $198, respectively, these models are considered the first picture-in-picture enabled set-tops to dip below $200. This spring the Magnavox launched at $298; the Insignia, $349.
Low-cost upconverting DVD players are proving tough rivals to Blu-ray set-tops, with prices hitting $40 to $50.
Besides an attractive price tag, Panasonic is enhancing its BD35 with a Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment software offer. When people purchase the $299 player, they are eligible to receive free Blu-ray copies of the studio’s Ratatouille and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Promotion information is detailed at the Web site www.panasonicsleepingbeauty.com.
Samuels wishes the studios would match manufacturers’ efforts to spur Blu-ray spending by reducing pricing on software. Blu-ray set-tops have slid hundreds of dollars from their 2006 format launch pricing of around $1,000. Yet new release Blu-ray Discs have held steady at about $25 to $30 at retail.
“You can buy a Blu-ray player at a competitive price, but then you’ll walk into a store and see DVDs for $11 and Blu-ray titles for $30,” said Samuels. “It’s a no-brainer that eventually we’ll need to get closer to a DVD price.”
Samuels doesn’t count out its latest Panasonic models and other set-tops further dropping in price as the holidays near.
“It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for Sears or Best Buy to sell them for a lot less money on Black Friday,” Samuels said.
