Blu-ray Supply Problems?
January 23, 2009

It has to be a bad sign when Samsung sends an email blast about Blu-ray savings, but the included link sends you to a retail site informing you the advertised player is out of stock. In this case, the partnered retailer Sears can't sell you the featured Netflix-streaming Samsung BD-P2500, and it also can't sell you some other stocked-out players, including the Sony BDP-S350 and Samsung BD-P1500.
This situation isn't just limited to Sears. Trolling around the Web, I also noticed that Crutchfield. com is out of the Sony S350, Samsung P1500 and Samsung P2500. Its site hopes to be restocked by mid-February with these models.
Upon the end of the format war in early 2007, there were also a number of  Blu-ray player stock-outs as retailers and manufacturers weren't anticipating the increased demand at that point.
As for what's going on now, it's tough to tell. One possibility is that manufacturers are gradually moving to produce the newer models they announced at CES, leaving earlier generation models to slowly fade out on shelves.  The declining dollar against the Japanese yen may also be hurting Blu-ray parts production, much of which takes place in Japan. It may be too costly to produce Blu-ray players in a big way right now, especially now that we're out of the high shopping season.
Whatever the reason, hopefully for Blu-ray's sake hardware supplies stay strong through the year.  Those titles keep coming in 2009, including such probable Blu-ray hits as Bond flick Quantum of Solace. 

Posted by Susanne Ault on January 23, 2009 | Comments (1)