The Company That Created Betamax, MiniDiscs and Memory Sticks Lose a Format War? Never …

Locked in a pitched battle with HD DVD supporters for next-generation DVD supremacy, Sony is doing all that it can to ensure that its Blu-ray format isn’t Betamaxed by the competition. And so today, the company cut the price of its newest Blu-ray player from $599 to $499. Considering that Sony’s first Blu-ray player was released just six months ago for $1,000, that’s a pretty dramatic price drop. Sony says it’s the result of lower-than-expected manufacturing costs. That’s certainly plausible. Still, you can’t help but wonder if the company’s finally realized the PlayStation 3 isn’t the Blu-ray Trojan horse it had hoped and is desperately trying to level the playing field in which HD DVD players have been selling for less than $300 for some time now.