I would have to say that SONY is in a unique position to include Blu_ray in the PS3 because they make the Blu-Ray players. What will cost the consumer $1,000 will cost SONY internally much less. Also all the PS3 needs is the drive itself. They already have budgeted for the other internal components for the PS3 (Power Supply , Processors, etc). The stand alone Blu-Ray players have to include much more than just the drive to be functional. They will need an AV processing chip to decode DD+ and DTS+ (plus the other formats). I'll bet that this cost is a significant part of the cost of stand alone Blu-Ray players.


Regards,


PS- This is why Microsoft could not include HD-DVD in the launch of XBox360. They have no control over what Toshiba does with it and they couldn't be guarenteed a time line. Plus Microsoft will have to pay more than internal cost for the products. Although it appears that Toshiba would have done themselves a favor by giving the drives to Microsoft for the XBox 360.

Regards,

Charlie