High time for Blu-ray discounting

Despite talk of HD VMD, yet another high-definition disc format looking to take on Blu-ray in the wake of the demise of HD-DVD discs and players, Sony has what is pretty much an unassailable lead in the hi-def disc market.
That would spell monopoly to most people and years of paying through the nose for technology that comes with a high licence cost to the consumer electronics companies looking to build Blu-ray drives into their products.
But I think the alternative scenario of two different high-definition disc systems supported by rival camps of content makers was even less appealing.
While it would be nice if the consumer electronics industry could come up with hardware standards collectively to cut out these kinds of turf wars, that's not really how the game works, especially for the Japanese, who are fiercely competitive and quite rightly equate innovation with outperforming their rivals.
We can only hope now that there's enough diversity in the Blu-ray hardware market to generate competition in devices and the pricing for them.
A smart move by the Blu-ray camp now would be to bring down the cost of stand-alone Blu-ray players and the discs that run on them to speed up adoption of the technology.
There are signs of exactly that in the US, where Amazon has cut the price of some Blu-ray titles to US$15 and will launch a line of titles priced at US$10 each next month. Best Buy is offering a free US$20 gift card with two Blu-ray movies bought.
Last month, Sony introduced new Blu-ray players in the US priced at US$400 - US$500. The BDP-S550, which sells for US$500 is on sale here for NZ$1000. Noel Leeming is selling the last of the older, less-advanced BDPS300 Blu-ray players for $700 until March 21 as it clears the way for the new generation of Sony players.
Dick Smith also appears to be clearing out its Panasonic Blu-ray model though the clearance price of $1429 is pretty steep.
There's so far been little movement in the price of new release Blu-ray movie titles - you're still looking at $50 for a new release, $35 for older titles. Based on the US discounting, that pricing will have to change soon.
As Freeview launches its high-definition terrestrial broadcasts next month, what better time is there to come to market with some competitively priced Blu-ray players and discs?