Anyone who has held off purchasing a Blu-ray player will be happy to know that their waiting period has paid off, as Blu-ray players have have dropped by at least 20% over the past 45 days according to this TG Daily report. The price drops affect entry level Blu-ray players including the Sharp BD-HP20U, Sony BDP-S300, Samsung BD-P1400 and Panasonic DMP-BD30K. Just to give an example of the price difference over recent months, the Panasonic DMP-BD30K averaged around $500 between March and June and now sells for just over $250 on average.
Like the HD DVD players that hit $99 last year lacked some advanced features such as 1080p, these players don't have the latest Blu-ray profile features such as BonusView support. Then again, for those who want Blu-ray for watching movies and don't care much about the bells & whistles the bonus content has to offer, they are unlikely going to miss the feature.
So far, Sony's BDP-S300 Blu-ray player has managed to break the $200 barrier with a retailers listing this for under $200. It's current average retail price is $207 according to Pricegrabber (for October 15th). The lowest price BonusView capable players currently start over $350.
Another thing that makes Blu-ray more attractive now compared to earlier in the year is the drop in Blu-ray movie prices. Then again, this isn't really much of a surprise at this stage with Blu-ray movies struggling to boost sales most of this year. Also, despite all the publicity and advertising Blu-ray got, not to mention the format being available for over 2 years now, the majority of movie sales are still on DVD, with online movie download services gaining popularity.
It will be interesting to see how low Blu-ray prices get for the holiday season, considering that earlier this year, Blu-ray players were predicted to never reach $200 this year.
