Sony Unveils Blu-Ray Fall Lineup
Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom! Visit and bookmark our new site. Buzz is bigger and better, including sports, world news, gadgets and the entertainment news that you're used to. Same staff, just more stuff! Why Fark, Drudge and Huffington when you can Buzz!?Sony Corp. showed its fall lineup of Blu-ray disc players and recorders, as it prepares for its first holiday season after winning the next-generation format battle against HD DVD.
The Japanese consumer electronics maker said it was making available two Blu-ray players world-wide and seven Blu-ray recorders in Japan. In the U.S., the two players are priced at $399 and about $2,000, respectively. The first has been available since July in the U.S. It will be available this month in Europe and December in Japan. The latter model will enter markets world-wide in early December.
Over the past several years, supporters of Blu-ray and HD DVD had expended much energy wooing movie studios, retailers and consumers as they fought fiercely to dominate the high-definition DVD market. The last holiday season was marked by big price cuts and free movie giveaways to try to attract consumers, who were uncertain about which format to support. Toshiba Corp., the leading supporter of HD DVD technology, finally admitted defeat in February.
This will be the first holiday season in which electronics makers can focus on selling Blu-ray players without the added burden of having to make an argument for the format first. It will be an important opportunity to target consumers, who are interested in watching high-definition movies but have been sitting on the sidelines.
Sony said it expects industrywide Blu-ray player and recorder sales to more than triple to about seven million units in the current business year ending March 2009, from 2.1 million a year earlier. Of that, Sony expects to sell 3.1 million units, which is about a 44% share. It also expects to sell 10 million PlayStation 3 videogame consoles, which can be used to watch Blu-ray movies.
- from WSJ