I say it here, it comes out there! Only thing is, I underestimated the desperation of Walmart (which has been doing well during the economic downturn) to ensure this is a happy holiday shopping season for its stores and shareholders.
Last week I boldly predicted -- OK, maybe not boldly but slightly recklessly, like making a turn without the blinker on -- that the price on standalone Blu-ray DVD players would come crashing down in time for the holiday selling season. Because if they didn't, most of my readers weighing in on the matter strongly suggested that this would not be a Blu-Ray Christmas for them.
But I'm guessing my readers will take another look in light of Walmart's announcement today of the Blu-ray player it will begin selling the day after Thanksgiving. It will not carry the $149 price tag I predicted would be needed to spike a sales surge. No, it went $20 lower, to $129, or about one-third off what anybody today is charging for a standalone Blu-ray player.
Do me a favor? On Friday just step nicely around that shopper in front of you -- not over her.
UPDATE: Reader David Risner asks whether the fact it's a previous generation (v1.1) BD player makes any difference. Well, see for yourself: the hardware limitations of the $129 v1.1 player are real, but wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me.
I think just looking at that comparison page from Wikipedia may not make it completely clear.
BD-Live (Profile 2.0) players are capable of "the new fancy stuff" that is showing up on the discs. As Wikipedia states, you will get the main feature, but might not get extras if you run on an old-standard player. (For example, I don't know if you'll always necessarily even get commentaries, though I would expect you would.)
I don't have a Blu-ray player myself yet, btw.
Posted by: mattack | November 21, 2008 at 03:22 PM