$199 Not the Magic Blu-ray Price After All

[wraggster]

The general consensus, among experts, analysts and other blowhards has long been that when Blu-ray players legitimately hit $199, the format would finally go mainstream. Well, $200 Blu-ray players are all over the place for Christmas, even Sony's BDP-S350, with its unshakeable $299 MSRP. But according to ABI Research, only 8 percent of holiday buyers were even considering upgrading to Blu-ray even though about half of American homes have gone HD and it's totally uncontested by HD DVD this year. What about you guys?

http://gizmodo.com/5100014/199-not-t...rice-after-all

[HI-Saturn]

I was happy to see players finally reach the sub $200 range but I think people are still waiting for the movies now to reach dvd pricing. With an average cost of $30 or more for blu-ray movies, regular movies mainstream people aren't willing to pony that up when they can get them on regular dvd for $20 or less.

[JLF65]

Most DVD players are less than $100, with prices as low as $30. With the sudden turn in the economy, probably many are going to skimp this xmas just to see where the economy goes with the new president. Next xmas will be better (assuming Obama doesn't hose things up).

[jamotto]

While doing my shopping over thanksgiving weekend I didn't see any holding back on high dollar electronics, with many blu-ray players and HDTV's walking out the doors. I think it might be better to wait for the actual sales figures.

[sorceror]

At Target last week, it looked like nearly all their Blu-ray movies were $25 or less. That's getting closer to a workable price - and it's really interesting how many retail discs (DVD and Blu-ray) are coming with 'digital copies', too, that can be loaded onto other iPods and stuff.

It may not be enough to save this xmas, considering the economic "uncertainty", but it can't hurt.