Hey I will bite -- anyone out there drive a Cadillac? Reason I meantion that is that my wife drives a 2006 Toyota Avalon Limited. She wants a Cadillac! Gesh, $50,000 of eye candy that can not hold a candle to the Avalon she currently drives. The Avalon is bigger, gets better milage, will run away from the Cadillac from a standstill or from 60mph up. It also is a quiter running car, rides better and handles very lightly -- not like a tank which I was shocked when driveing the new CTS!
But, I bet there are those of you who would love the sexy looking Cadillac over the stodgy looking Avalon (I actually like the exterior of the Avalon but damm, that Cadillac is sexy!). I am of course talking about luxury cars and I will now try to tie the comparison over to the new Panny.
New tech is not cheap. I know, I KNOW, Toshiba made you think it was cheap but they lost 1 billion dollars trying to sell you on HD-DVD. Yes, they made a slick product but they did not price it right. Had they done that, had they kept the prices up -- maybe - just maybe they would of beat BD simply because they made the better mouse trap. But they decided to take the low road to sales and beef up sales because of the PS3 - which while a nice BD 2.0 player leaves alot to be desired. Lets face it, the PS3 is a marvel of engineering in that it does deliver a good amount of product for the price but it is really not the end all of BD players. The new Panney just might be. And at the release price of $699 is priced to enter the market as the best of the best and it is priced that way. If you are disappointed with the price -- don't buy the Cadillac - buy the PS3 or even buy a good 1.1 player -- it will still deliver the goods. In a few months these prices will come down maybe a few hundred dollars as more 2.0 players enter the market and give the consumers more choices but just wait.
I bet there will be a Avalon just down the road for you, a really decent 2.0 player just under $400 and it will get here by XMAS -- especially if you are all good boys and can wait just a little longer.