We will leave it up to you to decide whether this news is actually a surprise or not, but considering Microsoft’s negative public stance against Blu-ray, it is worth the note that the company might ship an external Blu-ray drive with the same strategy as it shipped an external HD DVD drive in between November 2006 and March 2008.
Microsoft repeatedly mentioned that it would consider a Blu-ray drive, but said as recently as this May, that Blu-ray “isn’t taking off” and essentially squashed the rumors about such a drive back then. But if Xbit Labs is right, then the company may have been working a Blu-ray drive for some time: The site reports that Microsoft might launch the drive just in time for the holidays and aim for a $100- $150 price tag – in order to steal some sales from the PS3.
Xbit Labs also said that Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology (TSST), which is owned by Toshiba (51%) and Samsung (49%) – essentially the same company that previously built the HD DVD drive extension for the Xbox 360. In a global view, Microsoft’s move toward an external BD drive may be viewed as surprising, since Toshiba actually skips Blu-ray in favor of high-priced DVD players.
The argument that an external Blu-ray drive may pull in extra sales from the PS3 is somewhat shaky, as Microsoft learned that the strategy of an external HD DVD drive did not work. Blu-ray still has not significant traction in the market despite the fact that HD DVD is gone and player prices are approaching the $200 mark. Offering an Xbox 360 BD drive may capture lots of headlines, but we believe that selling such a product may be a big gamble for Microsoft.
Source
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Microsoft reportedly ready to ship Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive
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