Sony showed its fall line-up of Blu-ray disc players and recorders as it prepared for its first holiday season after winning a format battle against HD-DVD.
The Japanese consumer-electronics maker said it will sell two Blu-ray players world-wide and seven Blu-ray recorders in Japan this year. One of the players has been available in the U.S. since July, priced at $399. It will be available this month in Europe and in December in Japan. The other player will enter markets in early December and will be priced about $2,000 in the U.S.
Supporters of Blu-ray and HD-DVD spent much energy wooing movie studios, retailers and consumers as they fought fiercely to dominate the high-definition DVD market over the past several years. Last year's holiday season was marked by big price cuts and movie giveaways to attract consumers, who were uncertain about which format to support.
Toshiba, the leading supporter of HD-DVD technology, 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.
Sony said it expects industry wide Blu-ray player and recorder sales to more than triple to about seven million units in the year that ends in March, from 2.1 million a year earlier. Of that, Sony expects to sell 3.1 million units, a 44% share. It also expects to sell 10 million PlayStation 3 videogame consoles, which can be used to watch Blu-ray movies.
Analysts are optimistic about the demand for Blu-ray products this holiday season, especially as more consumers upgrade their televisions to fully digital flat-screen models. Prices for players and movies have fallen.
But there will be challenges. The industry faces a big hurdle in persuading consumers who are satisfied with their current DVD players to switch. Blu-ray players will also compete against advanced standard-format DVD players that contain technology to improve the quality of the images. Such "upconverting" DVD players can be purchased for less than $80.
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