Panasonic: No price drops for Blu-ray players yet

Last week we came to the conclusion that we don’t have to expect any significant price drops in the upcoming months. It is expected that around Christmas many manufacturers will drop their prices and this could mean an overall decrease in price for Blu-ray players. Some people stated that with Blu-ray being the standard many studios will now start creating content. With more and more content becoming available we can automatically expect a player’s price drop they say.

Michael Langbehn, spokesman for the German Blu-ray Group and Panasonic Germany stated that he didn’t expect significant price drops in the next four to five months. ‘Around Christmas, we can expect more dramatic price decreases,’ he said. He also expects that the development of a mass market will take two to five years. This development is expected to generate even more price cuts.

‘When we are really in mass production, I think we can easily hit prices of 300 euros or lower," he said. "The market will develop in the next two to five years. Maybe by then it will be 50-50 Blu-ray and DVD.’

With this announcement we now know that it will take two, or five years, until we can finally start buying cheap Blu-ray players.