Samsung delays release of Blu-ray player until September

A Samsung spokesperson has confirmed to Pocket-lint that the release of its Blu-ray player has now been pushed back until September.

Recent reports have suggested that Samsung's player was scheduled to come out on time later this month.

As reported yesterday, Sony and Pioneer have pushed back the release dates of their much-anticipated Blu-Ray players.

Sony's BDP-S1 has an estimated ship date of 15 August, with an expected price tag of $1000.

This means that it is scheduled to launch almost 4 months later than expected

[GamerX2]

sony,Pioneer and now Samsung delays blueray players
Sooo... does anyone think this a good sign for the ps3?????

[Bill Nye]

Yep, something's wrong. Or they think HD-DVD isn't a threat because of their mediocre launch and want to wait to bring down costs a little...

[Gh0stDrag0n]

So.... you can buy blueray movies but not the player? WTF..................

[TheMART]

There's much, much wrong about this technology. Nobody needs it really at the moment and the coming 5 years and Sony tries to push it nomatter what.

They risk a lot with it. Not even the BetaBluRay technology but also the PS3. That are a lot of large risks all together for Sony

[OutLaw]

These delays are way to close to the release of the PS3. So how confident am I going to be about the system when I can't really see for myself if blu ray is worth it. If they are having problems even with movies to play right, then how can I trust a game on that technology.

[RelloC]

O.o

[Krimson]

If these delays are related to malfunctioning (which they probably are) then it's not a very good sign of things to come. Even if they get the defect rate down I bet we're going to see lots of malfunctioning optical drives in the PS3, and them dieing over short periods of time (hopefully just out of the warranty period, eh Sony?)

[kidvideo]

How pised were you when you had a problem with your $300 game system malfunctioned and you had to send it back? How REALLY Pissed will Sony owners be after spending $800 to $900 (PS3, extra controller and 2 - 3 games and maybe 1 bluray movie) for hardware that malfunctions. YIKES!!!! That's a big hit in the pocket. I think SONY is gambling big time on untested technology that the average consumer (Not the high tech Freaks) will not gravitate to immediately. For those of you willing to tke the risk, good luck, I hope you don't have any problems.

[Moostache]

There is little doubt that the first batch of PS3's that eventually come off the assembly line are going to suffer a huge (by industry standard 3-5%) failure rate.

I would not be surprised to see them actuaklly double up the industry notm and come in at about 8-10% defects in the first run.

Why do I say this? Simply because of Blu-Ray. This is not only a new optical media format, it is also introducing a new laser (with a narrower focus - hence the ability to read those more dense BD discs at all). The first CD players were dicey, the initial DVD players weren't a hell of a lot better and the currently released HD-DVD is slooooooooooow for a reason - it is error correcting on the fly.

I would be stunned if Sony can pull off the PS3 release under the existing time crucnh, with all of the reported problems and NOT have a massive log of complaints.

Good luck to them on that count....

[THELANDSOFSAND]

omg, yes, the cd players in the 80's were terrible!

well after about a weeks use they were.

[PS360PCROCKS]

agreed. it should be ok even if the ps3's are F'ed...they'll still sell

[Anerythristic26]

I really , REALLY feel the PS3 will be delayed once more. This XBox 360 move was masterful by Microsoft. I never had any idea how off guard they caught Sony. The BluRay technology is the only thing that will hold up the launch of the PS3, it simply is not ready for retail shelves and that's understandable it is a brand new technology. Sony really was committed to Bluray I'll give them that.

[OutLaw]

I saw some where there isn't a delay.

[GamerX2]

"Samsung spokesperson has confirmed" Vs"supposed to be released 2 weeks from now"

[THELANDSOFSAND]

delay a DVD player!?!

all it needs to do is play a fricking movie. this is a very worrying sign for the PS3 release date.

is it me or is the blu ray becoming the most difficult media launch ever?

[slugg]

Perhaps Sony is delaying these other blu-ray players for one of two reasons: 1. Problems with the tech that may or MAY NOT get fixed, but they have to release the PS3 before Christmas or they are sunk. If third-party players, or Sony stand-alone players, for that matter, came out before the PS3 and had significant drive problems, how well do you think the PS3 would sell then? 2. Sony wants these other players delayed so they can sell MORE PS3's, which will be basically cheaper blu-ray players. This way Sony can try and pump up demand/initial sales numbers even more for their struggling system.

[Moostache]

now I am not so sure it matters too much anyway.

Here's why:

1) the hardcore fans of Blu_ray and of the Playstation name are going to buy the thing no matter what, even if it doesn't release until NEXT fall.

2) the price point of the launch has placed the PS3 firmly outside of the "gift idea" for about 75% of the American market and even moreof the market in other territories. Something like 80% of Japanese polled responded that it was too expensive. What does that add up to? Simple really, it doesn't matter all that much if Sony launches in November now or in March or even next July - they are going to get their "hardcores" regardless and unless they seriously find a way to make the $600 unit sellable at $300 in the next 12 months, they STILL won't be able to sell it to the mass-market.

Anyone out there really believe that all these people who are buyign PS2's at $130 a shot are REALLY going to go out in the next 2 years and drop nearly 6 times that much to upgrade to a PS3? If you honestly believe that then you are probably either very dumb, very young or very blinded by fanyboyitis. These people are snapping up PS2's BECAUSE of the high price of the PS3 and its games and BECAUSE they can spend that same $600 (oor use $500 if you want) and they can get their PS2 and a complete library of "Greatest Hits Games" instead. Anyone who is celebrating the fact that PS2 outsold X360 units in May is short sighted indeed.

It does not matter one bit if Sony releases in November or next year also because of the complete lack of launch units anyway. Cell yields need to increase and beta-kits need to become production models pretty damn quick or there may not even be more than a few 100,000 units in November anyway.

XB360 found this out the hard way - if you launch a product but can't make enough to sell, do you really havea successful launch? 360's launch was a cluster-fock because of the console shortages, but the PS3 is going to make that shortage actually look like a feast.

[PS360PCROCKS]

that sucks for sony if it is failing right and left and it does in the ps3 well they will spend alot more to fix it than manufacture it

[jedicurt]

and not because there are problems. It has been talked about for months to try and get all Sony, Pioneer and Samsung to have a coordinated release with as many movies as possible. that is the reason for the initial pushback of bd-movies from May 23 to the 20th, because that is when samsung had announced that they were going to be releasing their player. Pioneer then said that they were pushing back till atleast august so that they could help to cut costs of production. sony then announced that their release would be close to this time aswell, so it only makes since (if you were to of paid attention to what has been happening the whole time) that samsung now push theirs back, so that all 3 players plus movies be released in coordination with each other. i would expect the bd movies to be resheduled for launch until end of july to first part of august aswell.

[clayton]

Sony has just postponed the launch of its Blu-ray players again, which prompts the question: Is Sony really going to get the PlayStation 3 out this year, even in Japan, and if so, what sort of specificaiton will it have? There seem to be few or no real facts around, but there are plenty of negative rumours.

Over at Kotaku.com, for example, their "Phantom Insider" points out that "Fully functional PS3 betas still do not exist" and suggests the specification will be downgraded again. Either you can't get enough Cell processors at the promised speed or the machine still runs too hot: "The current designs despite having vents all over the place apparently still cant dissipate the heat to sufficient levels", says Kotaku's PI.

The promised compatibility with the PlayStation 2 is also a problem, which Sony is apparently solving by sticking real PS2 chips inside -- at least temporarily.

Since this implies the PS3 hardware design may not really be finished, the obvious solution would be to put it in a bigger box. However, the PlayStation 3 is already the biggest console ever -- even bigger than the original Xbox.

These are just the latest problems in a string of missteps that started with the faked Killzone video shown at last year's E3 games trade show. The result is that Sony's credibility is diminishing fast.

So where did it all go wrong? In my view, Sony has made two big mistakes. The first is the design of the PS3, which seems to be too ambitious for the company to handle.

The whole idea of a games console is that it should be cheap and relatively simple to mass produce -- and cost reduce. That suggests using (mostly) known parts. You can get lots of buyers if your console provides better games than a PC that costs three or four times the price, and that is less hassle to maintain. Trying to produce a console that is ahead of PC technology and costs two or three times as much as a PC to manufacture is insane -- especially since console buyers won't pay an economic price. But that's what Sony is doing.

Sony's second big mistake is strategic, and concerns its use of the Blu-ray disc format.

The PlayStation 2 certainly benefitted from providing buyers with a cheap DVD player as well as a games console. However, the DVD format was agreed in 1995 and the first players went on sale in Japan in 1996. The PlayStation 2 wasn't launched in Japan until March 2000, roughly four years later. By the time most US buyers were shopping for a new games console, DVD was already an attractive and established format.

If Sony intended to repeat this successful strategy, it should have included Blu-ray in the PS4 in 2010-11.

However, with the PS3, Sony is attempting to do the reverse, and pull off a strategy that has never worked. Instead of capitalising on a successful video format, it's trying to use the PS3 to establish what is starting to look like an unsuccessful one.

Look at it this way. The original smash-hit PlayStation was launched in 1995, the same year that the two competing high-density CD camps agreed to back a single format: DVD. What would have happened if Sony had refused to agree a compromise with Toshiba's SD (Super Density) format but decided to use its own system in the PlayStation in 1995 -- and sell it at twice the price?

Would you have bought one? I don't think so....

PlayStation is a huge brand and may well be strong enough to swing it, but there's still a sting in the tail: the more PS3's Sony sells, even at $600, the more money it loses.

It's a safe bet that Microsoft's bean counters have noticed that Sony is financially vulnerable, and I'll be surprised if Sony isn't walking into a price war. And if you have to fight a price war, it's better not to face a company with $38 billion in the bank.

[achira]

what does a delay of a blue ray player from samsung to do with sony ??? you are so freaky, thats incredible, everyone know that you hate sony, so stop bashing if there is no real reason. its obvious what you are doing.

[jedicurt]

to say that blu-ray is going to die is redicoulous. lets compare them to the other sony failures, betamax - purly a movie format. mini-disc, couldn't compete with the cheap costs of multilayer cd's, because they didn't offer any more storage space, UMD - not used for storage.

However, blu-ray will stay around atleast as a storage medium because of size.
25GB (single layer)
50GB (dual layer)
100GB (prototype quad layer)

there is no other cheap medium for storage out there when dealing with these sizes. This is ideal for large capacity quick backups, before tape backups are done. This is where blu-ray is going to make it's impact and why it will stay around, even if the movie side of it is not accepted right of hand. by the way, pioneer has a bd-rom already on the market, there is just a long waiting line to purchase it

[clayton]

I got this info from another site, which it does sound plausable that sony could have made some critical mistakes. I know HD movies and games kick ass, but seriously who in their right mind would buy a sony product after all that has happened recently.

[PS360PCROCKS]

not me :)

[Fat Onion]

I may consider getting a PS3 if I get a HDTV and blu ray wins.