Panasonic's Blu-Ray drive is available for $793 · 2006-06-14 19:05 by Damian
We missed the release of Panasonic’s first generation Blu-Ray drive (LF-MB121JD) the other day, but today we actually stumbled across a bunch of them at the local computer hardware store which means that they are really available.
While most over-the-counter places sell it for JPY 99,800 ($868), the cheapest mail order businesses sell it at JPY 91,080 ($793). This is actually not all that bad for the first of the crop, once volume manufacturing ramps up and other manufacturers enter the game we’ll see this drop quickly.
Obviously most people won’t be rushing out to get the drive at this price, especially since media is still pretty scarce (and expensive). The first buyers will probably be looking at data archival, with HD video playback seen as a nice bonus. Availability also means OEM’s will have their hands on it at an even better price point, so we’ll start seeing Blu-Ray drives appear in all kinds of high-end systems soon.
It’s worth to note once more that I have no grudge with HD-DVD except for the fact that I still think it will be steamrolled by the pure number of PS3’s later, regardless of Sony being late into the market.
Latest Japanese prices on this drive can be seen here. Panasonic’s information page is here.
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