Cost of UHD Blu Ray - Is MS subsidizing Xbone S, or is Sony just milking it?

[mutantsushi]

@MikeRox:

But point being, Sony doesn't need to lose profits to include it.  
If there is a minor cost, OK, pass that $5 onto the final price of the product.
No change in Sony's profits.  $5 price difference will not affect sales volume at all.  So what is there to lose?
Taking into account actual realistic cost numbers, and inclusion or not of BDXL/UHD is not really a price point issue.

Honestly, the only rationale I see is that Sony thinks more people will use it's streaming service than if they included BDXL drive.
But the thing is, if 4K Blu-Ray is as marginal as people say, that won't just be a large differnce, yet un-necessarily pisses people off.
Like if you go and buy the best sports sedan, dropping $80,000, and it doesn't include a stereo system.
Sure, it's still a nicer driving experience than a $20,000 car, and you may well buy it anyways, but why did they need to stiff you on the radio?

Pemalite said:

mutantsushi said:

Checking consumer prices for single unit orders of internal drives on New Egg, the difference for BDXL reader (not burner) seems to be $20 retail.
Pretty clear that actual cost is less than $15, probably around $5 difference.  And they didn't just simply add it in.

The cost is likely less than that.

There are plenty of PC OEM drives that just need a firmware update to enable 4k Blu Ray, so the costs of the 4k Blu Ray technology itself looks to be likely zero. You are probably just looking at higher prices between regular drives and 4k drives due to 4k being seen as a premium where extra money can be made.

Right, that's why I've written on production costs vs. market costs where perceived premiums can apply.
If you have better source of pricing (for BDXL vs. non-BDXL), I'd love to hear it, that's exactly why I created this thread.