I'm not really into video, but it sounds like the half-wits in the mass market electronics / entertainment software industrial complex have finally realized that hardly anyone is going to pay $850 for a fancier DVD player when the one they already own gives them virtually perfect pictures and sound as it is. It's the lesson learned from the way that mass market consumers ignored SACD and DVD-Audio.
It's like Gillette selling the Fusion razor cheap, because once you own one, you have to fill it with a pricey Fusion cartridge every week or two. If you "give away" the players, then you have a market that wants to buy Blue Ray and HD-DVD discs. If no one buys the players, then no one will buy the discs. Sony has the advantage of being in both the hardware and software markets.
It's like Gillette selling the Fusion razor cheap, because once you own one, you have to fill it with a pricey Fusion cartridge every week or two. If you "give away" the players, then you have a market that wants to buy Blue Ray and HD-DVD discs. If no one buys the players, then no one will buy the discs. Sony has the advantage of being in both the hardware and software markets.