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Sony Electronics to Start Selling Blu-Ray Disc Player in July

Posted on: Friday, 17 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Mar. 17--NEW YORK -- Sony Electronics Inc. said Thursday it will begin selling its first player of the Blu-ray Disc, capable of storing a large quantity of moving images, in North America in July for $1,000 per unit.

The Blu-ray Disc is a next-generation optical disc for storing movies, games, photos and other digital content.

The Blu-ray Disc format is competing with the High-Definition DVD format to become the technological standard for next-generation DVDs.

Earlier this month, Toshiba Corp. introduced two play-only HD DVD models in the North American market.

Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. have led a number of other companies to develop the Blu-ray Disc technology.

Toshiba, NEC Corp. and other companies have developed the HD DVD format.

Competition between the two technologies is expected to intensify in the Japanese market and elsewhere for movies and other software since the two groups have failed to introduce common standards.

Sony Electronics has yet to set the timing of sales of the new product, the BDP-S1, in Japan.

Of the two Toshiba models, a lower-priced one costs $499.99, less than half the price of Sony Electronics' BDP-S1.

Sony said earlier it will launch a Blu-ray Disc player as early as this summer.

While the launch of its next-generation PlayStation 3 video game console has been delayed about six months until early November, a Blu-ray Disc player will be put on sale as initially planned.

Sony Electronics also said Thursday desktop and notebook computers with the Blu-ray Disc drive as well will be sold in North America starting early this summer. The desktop computer is priced at $2,300 while the price of the notebook computers remains to be fixed.

"We're in a unique position to be unveiling a full line of HD products that capitalize on Blu-ray Disc's technological advantages," said Hideki Komiyama, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics in a statement. "Blu-ray Disc will set the bar for the high-definition lifestyle that consumers have been anticipating."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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SNE, 6758, TOSBF, 6502, MC, 6752, NIPNY, 6701,

Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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