We just spotted the first 99 USD Blu-ray players on the market, and it's a result of the following.
Taiwan-based optical disc drive (ODD) makers, in response to the offer of a Blu-ray Disc (BD) player model by US department store Sears for US$99.99, expect production costs of BD players to gradually drop to US$50 in 2010, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
The BD player model being offered by Sears for online purchase is a refurbished Magnavox RNB500MG9.
Current production costs of a BD player are about US$100, with pick-up heads and chipsets accounting for 50% and 25% respectively, the sources noted. With more and more makers of the two key components and increasing yield rates, production costs are expected to keep decreasing to a level of US$50 in 2010, the sources said [via digitimes].
