My understanding was that the price of the diodes was $27.40 each (USD) or something similar or close to this, but due to the stringent quality standards required by the Blue Ray discs to read the ultra small disc details correctly there is very little room for error. Up until recently I believe that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 7 diodes that have been produced were being wasted and therefor the cost of each diode was technically $27.40 but when you are wasting up to 6 - 1 the calculated price from a production aspect goes up massively. If you have x yield and are inputting 6x parts then the final cost is quite high. I believe that this production 'failure rate' has been getting better as the production technology is upgraded and therefore the 'cost' of the diodes is going down from a quality and lowered wastage rate, and I also understand that the cost of the diodes dropping from $27 to $8 is completely respectable also.
