From my (very limited) understanding what this means is that Sharp has been able to produce a Blue Lazer diode that plays both HD formats (as well as CDs and DVDs) for roughly the same price as a Blu-Ray specific diode currently costs. Being that the necessary decoding hardware for both formats are identical, and the physical characteristics of the discs are remarkably similar, you should be able to make a dual format player by producing a Blu-Ray player with this diode and updating the drive's firmware. This (potentially) means that you will be able to buy a dual format player for slightly more than a Blu-Ray player because the only difference will be licencing costs.
Effectively, this has the potential to eliminate the format war for consumers ...
