Contrary to what you've read in the blogsphere, the cost of Blu-ray players has not increased since the demise of HD DVD
This blog was first published on WesleyTech.com.
For some reason, several blogs are writing stories about how Blu-ray
player prices have risen since the demise of HD DVD. This is
ridiculous. The information is gathered from popular price engines for this story.
Let’s look at this for a minute. It’s being reported that the average cost of the Sony
BDP-S300 is $405. This is above MSRP, set by Sony at $399. One retailer
lists it for $445 (above the list price), and the rest are at MSRP or
below. This is throwing off the average.
We also have to consider that many retailers are not
authorized retailers for the product they’re selling. Authorized
retailers (Circuit City, Crutchfield, Best Buy, etc.) list the Sony
player at MSRP of $399 - as is correct. No Blu-ray player manufacturer
has increased the MSRP of their players.
If retailers were selling below retail previously (and authorized ones
do not or they will lose their relationship with the company), it was
not do to competition against HD DVD. These retailers weren’t on the
Blu-ray side trying to compete against Toshiba,
they were also selling Toshiba players. Competition between formats
would have been championed by the manufacturers, and they did not just
now raise their list price. The MSRP now is the same as the beginning
of the year.
Consider this my civic duty, exposing the fraud put out on blogs to stir up controversy and gain hits for their advertisers.
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