Sony announced in February that they are going to release a second generation Blu-ray high definition disc player this summer. The BDP-S300 is essentially a slightly smaller version of the current BDP-S1, with a smaller sticker price as well.

Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray Player

The Associated Press is now reporting that the BDP-S300 will be available for $499, which is $100 less than the unit's original announced price. This means that it will be the lowest price yet for a Blu-ray player, besting the Sony Playstation 3 ($599), and it will come with a remote control functionality that can be used with programmable remotes.

The article quotes Chris Fawcett, vice president of Sony Electronics' home products division, as saying that the price cut is "due to falling production costs and the growing demand for Blu-ray products," but I would wager a guess that it has quite a bit to do with the fact that the hardware for the competing format, HD DVD, is priced very aggressively, and that Toshiba is offering $100 instant rebates on their players (bringing the base HD-A2 model down to under $250 at some retailers), making them even more attractive to a larger number of people.

Sony would be dumb to think that pricing isn't a very important factor in the decision process when people are looking to make the jump to a high definition disc format to go along with their high definition televisions and home theater setups.

I just found the Press Release from Sony for the BDP-S300, so I'll be posting that in a few minutes [here it is], but you can also read the Associated Press article on Yahoo! News by clicking the Read link below.