Sony haven't announced a price but in the article T3 reckon it'll be well over £1,500 which at the current exchange rate would be $2,970. Ouch, that sounds like a lot more for you Yanks than it does for us Brits I tell ya!

Still Apple and Sony do make the sexiest looking laptops and there's always a price premium for style.

Now that you've awaken the pop-quiz junkie in me:

Which movie?

With regards to my response to this news story (as the legendary Homer Simpson would passionately chant):

"Mmmmmm....recordable Blu-Ray!....."

Well in the movie they didn't say a box of paddles with balls attached it was just "A box of these" and the movie was Blazing Saddles.

If you havn't seen it you should get on top of that asap.

How are they supposed to win the format war? Seems like simple business tactics to me. Unless I misread the piece, they're not putting it in every Vaio which still gives the consumer a choice.

other than the assumption that Sony is flooding or forcing the product onto the consumer.

First and foremost, the key fact shall forever remain that Blu-Ray is represented by Sony; if Sony doesn't push the medium, then who will? I'm sure they've got deep scars, regrets, and "If Only We Did"'s from their many previous format failures.

In addition, the introduction of any Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD, DVD, 8-Track, VHS, or any other format for that matter) product is the result of natural market progression. I'm willing to bet that Sony is still offers (a wider range of) laptop versions equipped with DVD drives instead. On the other side of the coin, imagine that the company still sells current products that have only CD-ROM drives...we'd all think they'd be off their rocker, as doing so wouldn't make sense.

That said, how else can any company remain innovative, competitive, profitable, and acquire a generally positive response without pushing their latest innovation and eventually abandoning their older ones?

Granted, with regards to your statement that they are flooding and forcing the market, the PS3 admittedly comes closest to this. However, bear in mind that it is never, ever forced...especially considering that alternatives (i.e., XBox) thankfully remain readily available.

In addition, the inclusion of Blu-Ray in the PS3 is nothing more than product progression. Remember that Sony included a DVD drive in the PS2; at the time, many could have similarly argued that a CD-ROM would have sufficed.

In retrospect, try to imagine the disaster if THAT happened. I have no doubt that the PS2 would have flat-out failed miserably had Sony not "forced" DVD into the now-legendary PS2.

The influence that Blu-Ray is to have on PS3's ultimate destiny is yet to be seen, but we're already starting to see more and more developers rumble and gripe about the relatively limited storage capacity of DVD...while more and more begin to praise the possibilities the superior Blu-Ray format has to offer.

Therefore, I'm not sure whether bashing Sony for pushing (NOT read: "bullying") their product has any merit, as there is no question that the company has too much (money, reputation, battle scars) at stake for them to act otherwise.

I personally anxiously look forward to all the HD goodness that's yet to come.

NOTE: I severely apologise for my overly long-winded response. I knew I shouldn't have had that third espresso. :)

sorry fellas... i skimmed through the article. i assumed they would put it into every vaio laptop

for the record, their laptops are crap. my sister got one and it's had problems from day one. even after going back, under warranty to get fixed, we had to shell out $400 for a repair bill (whats the point of warranty?). the laptop worked flawlessly for about an hour. then the same problems happened again.

torch, u do raise some good points. it is obvious that they will push the format but say it becomes ways of betamx (which i highly doubt it will). not only would they have a whole game console with a flopped format but laptops as well. this is probably the biggest risk sony has ever taken by including BR in their consoles and some of these laptops. DVDs however were already a clear standard come way of the ps2 so it was just an added feature to include it since they saw that DVD disc size would be needed for that gen. but i will keep with the bullying aspect. sony with time have been trying to be the key leader of a format in home electronics history. it's smart if it succeeds, as it will make sony and their partners a ton of money. i'm just uncomfortable with the fact that a company like sony having that much control over a format

i was really happy to hear that BR was going to be PC only when first announced due to the disk capacity and all. then i was disappointed to hear the first rumors it would be in the ps3 and i already saw sony and their ways of going for gold like they did with betamx, minidisc, etc. dont get me wrong, i love a lot of their products, i just dont want them to have that much power. something just doesn't seem right

if BR becomes the next format, i'll gladly pick up a player/burner and start using the format. i dont see it being a standard for a few years though

Like I said, you can buy a reasonably cheap Acer laptop for $700, then buy a portable blu-ray burner for $600 instead of spending almost $3000 on one of Sony's garbage Vaios.

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Let me be clear. This is sarcasm