I would offer a different opinion. For about 18 months following the BetaMax demise, I saw little to no sales on VHS tapes, and about an 18% price increase where I was at.
Not sure how lack of competition promotes pricing incentives to the consumer.
There is still competition. Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and a bunch of others may BD players. The mass adoption of one format will encourage people to buy these players and will reduce the price. That's how EVERY electronic device I've ever owned worked. My first DVD player was $600+ if I recall. First plasma's were $10K+, etc etc. Prices will come down because of mass production/adoption.
Not players, the media (the movies themselves.)
The cost of the player is really insignificant relative to the cost of media.
I am format neutral from last year. Between the BD30 and AS35, I have about $725 into the pair.
Though its only been a few months, the library has 15 HD-DVDs and 21 Blu-rays.
Even at a say a low price of $20 each (which is NOT what I paid
), that represents $720. So in just a few months of ownership, the media itself as basically equaled the cost of the players.
To build another analogy, lets look at DVDs. Lets say you have about 300. Even at a low ball price of say $7.50 each, that is a $3600 investment. That makes the cost of any DVD player (even say a high dollar unit) really pale in comparison.
With the format war, the consortiums were funding incentives to the consumers. Now there is no format war. There is no need for the consortium to offer incentives. Can;t remember a BOGO since the announcement (other than to clear titles not moving). I had someone say well its after Xmas, did you really expect them? I said yes, why not, I was gettting BOGOs back inAug last year.
I hope I am wrong, but,,,,,,,
