According to industry sources in Taiwan, OEM Blu-ray manufacturers have been hit with “seriously stagnant sales” due to Sony, Samsung and Sharp’s decision to drop prices of standalone Blu-ray players to under $200 USD.
The manufacturers began shipping players out in October and November aimed “at the $199 to $299 price range” which became nearly impossible to sell at profit after the bigger brand name companies began selling the players at under $200.
The companies should be okay now however, as brand name Blu-ray player prices have crept up to their average prices before the special holiday cuts.
Digitimes noted that U.S. buyers bought almost exclusively from big name companies such as Samsung and Sony during the holiday season, leaving less reputable OEM brands out to dry.
Result for: industry sources
Industry sources have said that Sony is planning to begin buying LCD TV panels from its rival Sharp, possibly as soon as April of this year.
Sony is currently running an LCD panel joint venture with Samsung but this latest move should help the company “secure enough panels to meet fast-growing LCD TV demand without heavy capital investments.”
Currently, Samsung and Sony compete for the highest sales in the global LCD TV market, while Sharp lags slightly behind.
Sharp is currently building the world’s largest LCD panel factory and the company hopes to boost its LCD output capacity by 50 percent over the next year.
Result for: industry sources
Although it is not officially confirmed yet, industry sources have indicated that there are upcoming price cuts coming for all Microsoft Xbox 360 models in Europe.
The rumors suggest that there are “non-disclosure agreements in place with leading retailers” preventing them to reveal the upcoming price drop but that it is coming a week or so ahead of the Easter sales period. The expected price drop is EUR 50 for each available model.
Interestingly, the latest cuts will drop the price of the Arcade Xbox 360 model to a price cheaper than the rival Nintendo Wii. The Wii has dominated the “casual gamer” and family markets since its launch but Microsoft has said they hope to have the Arcade model steal some of the Wii’s thunder. A price drop of this magnitude would certainly put some pressure on Nintendo.
