Dan Warne14 July 2006, 3:45 PM
So what exactly is the true cost of the BluRay or HD-DVD drive in one of the new high definition laptops? $100? $500? $1000? It seems that even the notebook manufacturers themselves aren't too sure.
When Toshiba and Sony launched their high definition DVD laptops (with HD-DVD and BluRay drives, respectively) my bet is that the thought running through every tech enthusiast's mind wasn't "hot damn, high res movies..." but rather, "how much of that whopping price tag is just for the optical drive?"
When we asked that question of both companies and were met with the sound of the background hiss on the phoneline, we took a different tack. We asked: "how much will it cost me to replace the drive if I drop the notebook and break it?"
Toshiba took a while to stump up the info, but eventually came around. Product Marketing Manager Matt Codrington said the cost for replacement HD-DVD drives was "about $600" though he couldn't give a more exact figure than that.
He said that given lounge-room HD-DVD players were well over $1,000, that price was evidence that Toshiba wasn't putting a price premium on HD-DVD as a new technology.
"In fact, we are trying to break the chicken-and-egg scenario by pricing the HD-DVD drives themselves pretty much at cost," he said.
The Toshiba Qosmio G30 has a $5,499 RRP, and we're sure at that price Toshiba execs aren't exactly going to be going hungry.
Sony, on the other hand, is more cagey. Its PR firm quoted the Sony product manager as saying "no price has been set yet" for a replacement BluRay drive used in its similarly lavishly priced $5,499 Vaio VGN-AR18GP (pictured right).
We responded: "but there must be a cost... if I buy one of the laptops and break the optical drive, there must be a price for the replacement part?"
Sony's response was that they'd get back to us. A week later, we're still waiting.
Could it be that the BluRay drive is a priceless technology? Or does the BluRay drive contribute so much to the cost of the notebook that Sony's embarrassed to say?
Perhaps there is a simpler explanation like the fact that Sony's not actually shipping the notebook yet and therefore the mothership in Japan hasn't provided the yokels here with a spare parts price list.
We'll let you know when we hear back from Sony.