Andre Yoskowitz
30 Apr 2007 19:44
According to Semiconductor Today, Shiroishi Semiconductor Inc., a subsidary of Sony, has claimed that they will be increasing production of the blue-violet laser diodes used in all Blu-ray Disc drives to an industry-leading 1.7 million diodes per month. The company has also set plans in motion to increase production to 5 million a month soon.
Increased production of the diodes will help lower prices of Blur-ray drives for consumers and hopefully lower the price of Sony's PlayStation 3
"The right question to ask is whether the full bill of materials is below $499, allowing them to cut price and still avoid losing money. I'm not competent to answer whether it is, but I am competent to say that when cost is below $499, we should look for a cut to that level," Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter told GameDaily BIZ. "The point is that if they're ramping capacity to [5 million diodes], they probably are coming down the cost curve for MPEG chips, dedicated disc drive processors, and every other component. Hard to say for sure, but I'd guess that Sony could squeeze a hundred dollars out of its cost by mid-year, maybe more."
"My guess is that you will see a price cut this year," he continued. "I think that the introduction of the Xbox 360 Elite gives Sony an opportunity to cut price and claim that they offer Blu-ray for only $20 more."
Sony has called its commitment to Blu-ray the smartest decision it ever made and hopefully this huge increase in diode production will lower the price of the PS3 for the consumer and really get this format war started.
Source:
Dailytech