By James Wells
TOKYO: Just days before Samsung officially launches the first Blu-ray player on the North American market, Sony has announced its first Blu-ray player, the BDP-S1, will be delayed by a further two months.
Sony will delay the introduction of the BDP-S1, from August until 25 October, which is just weeks before the company’s PlayStation3 console, which also features a Blu-ray Disc player.
The Sony BDP-S1 is rumoured to be priced at approximately $US999, making the $A999 PlaySation3 a relatively cheap Blu-ray alternative.
The next generation disc format features 25GB on each side which is enough capacity to record and play back hours of high definition content.
Earlier this week, Sony Pictures released the first seven movie titles on Blu-ray Disc, ahead of the launch of Samsung’s first player on Sunday.
Samsung Australia general manager – marketing, Kurt Jovais told Current.com.au, local retailers should expect the launch of the first Blu-ray Disc player in the fourth quarter of this year.
Samsung will launch the world’s first Blu-ray hardware in North America this Sunday at $US999.95 .
Panasonic also announced this week that they will launch a Blu-ray home theatre package in September. The package will promote the new high definition format simultaneously with the company’s new 65-inch plasma television –Viera, which will be released globally in the third quarter.
On Tuesday this week, Toshiba launched the first HD-DVD device on the Australian market, the Qosmio G30 notebook.
HD-DVD is the rival format to Blu-ray in what many industry observers believe is a format war that can ultimately only have one winner, as was the case with VHS versus Beta in the 1980s.
Microsoft supports the HD-DVD format within its popular Xbox 360 games console and Sony is counting on the success of its Blu-ray enabled Playstation 3 console, which is likely to be launched in mid-November, to help drive the uptake of the technology, as the original Playstation did for the DVD.
Sony will have to overcome being late to market with both the Blu-ray technology and the Playstation 3, along with the Blu-ray technology’s more premium pricepoints.