According to an internal memo, LG Electronics has dropped plans to launch its BD199 Blu-ray player this spring. LG sales VP Bob Perry said "In light of uncertainty in this early stage of the market for pre-recorded high-definition optical discs, we have decided not to introduce the BD199 as originally planned for this spring."

The spring release of the BD199 would have played well with Sony's May 23 launch date for Blu-ray content. Instead, the company will release a hybrid player that can playback both Blu-ray and HD-DVD content in late summer/early fall.

Up until now LG Electronics was firmly in the Blu-ray camp, together with most of the other big consumer electronics firms such as Sony, Philips, Dell and Matsushita's Panasonic, but now the firm is the second high-profile Blu-ray supporter to change position. Hewlett-Packard, the world's second biggest PC maker, decided last month to also support HD DVD alongside Blu-ray.

LG expects to announce the first product later this year, said its European president James Kim, but the price had not yet been decided. "It will be only in a few products (PCs). The product has not yet hit the sweet spot," Kim said, referring to low prices which are needed to convince cost-conscious computer makers to include a Blu-ray optical drive in their products.

Support from the PC industry is important. In the first years after the DVD was introduced in 1995, around 70 percent of demand for DVD drives came from the personal computer industry.

Story filed 12.03.06