this is what I was talking about when I said a single format would begin to produce lower-priced players due to competition: very few companies are producing BD players, and since it's more of a consortium thing up till now, it was very friendly competition... get the product to the consumer as part of a team, and prices weren't exactly competitive, either against the other format or with each other.
But now with a single format, companies will feel safe with offering their own equipment to the consumer, which means they need to compete for shelf-space, and for the eye of the consumer.
Companies won't feel threatened entering into development since there wasn't a threat of the format dying in the near future. So now, you're gonna get an influx of CE manufacturers developing BD products, and including maturity of the production methods (less costly to develop over time due to increased efficiency), that should encourage lower prices as new units are introduced. Don't necessarily expect price cuts, but rather over time as more players are released, some of those will be cheaper, as they will be made by companies that typically create lower priced CE. But you'll also see companies in the high-end release extravagant products that command a premium. But that's normal.
