Sony Blu-ray player price drop
Sony’s BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player will receive a $100 price drop next week to make an MSRP at $399, the lowest yet. Originally a sale was planned for a $100 rebate which was taken back for this new MSRP. Sony head Howard Stringer made comments about a week ago saying he expected this new price point but nothing lower, obviously they were planning this break when he made that statement.
There will most likely be sale prices in spite of Stringer’s remarks. One Black Friday ad for Best Buy had this player at $399 plus Spider-Man Blu-ray and a $100 gift card, bringing the total price to $299 cash value.
Blu-ray is also continuing the 5 free disc promotion through February.
The Blu-ray Disc Association keeps talking about doing whatever it takes to win this “war,” but I think they’ve got so much support and market position that if they were to really throw their weight completely behind the format this skirmish would have ended a while back. From where I sit it looks like the HD DVD side is really pushing their format and the Blu-ray side is over-confident and think it doesn’t matter what they do because the market will decide sooner or later in their favor.
