Blu-ray players to drop 20 per cent

Sony's Blu-ray DVD player will fall by at least 20 per cent in price over the forthcoming holiday season, a senior company official has said.

Sony Electronics president Stan Glasgow told a twice-a-year media roundtable in New York that he expected the price of its standalone player to drop to around $399. But he added that he didn't see retail prices falling any further.

"I don't expect it to go much lower than that," TWICE Magazine quotes the company chief as saying.

Panasonic's first Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player is due to be shipped next week, and Sony is planning a response to this, Mr Glasgow added. The Sony head stated that a firmware upgrade would be made available for certain existing Sony players, and this would enable some 1.1 features.

Sony will release its own new players at some point next year, he added - and these could "possibly" have 1.2 features.