Sony says $200 Blu-ray players are still a year away

Despite discussion that the company needs to reduce prices in order to advance the format, Sony still seems to be mostly ignoring those calls.

Price continues to be the biggest argument against Blu-ray, even though it is no longer facing serious competition from HD DVD. It is no surprise that analysts and press have begun pressing for answers from the company on this issue.

Such was the case at a Sony press conference in New York Wednesday. While the gathering was meant more to update the media on Sony's overall efforts, Blu-ray obviously came up as a subject of discussion.

Sony Electronics president Stan Glasgow said to reporters that a $200 player "could happen" next year, but didn't mention a target time frame, according to an account by Gizmodo. He did however offer that he expected a $299 player to be available this year.

This would match up well with NPD Group's projections that there is still no real market for high-definition discs until 2009, when it saw the price of players falling below $200, and a broader array of content available

Glasgow also offered that the company expects to sell some five million Blu-ray players in 2008, however this includes sales of the PlayStation 3 along with its set-top systems.