The 2nd paragraph of the article is definitely good news.
A smaller, and less expensive Blu-ray player has been developed by Sony and Nichia and are expecting the new laser unit, which is 3mm thick to come equipped in Sony’s laptops sometime this year. While this is good news for those looking for a new laptop at a lower cost due to the smaller Blu-ray player, gamers who have yet to purchase a PS3 may be able to get in on this as well.
Since the new Blu-ray unit is able to handle disks with organic dye in the recording layers which in turn can be churned out from existing DVD production lines, this will save the company loads of money, which hopefully will be passed on to the consumer as well. This smaller, less costly Blu-ray laser unit might be one of the contributing factors to the phasing out of the 80GB PS3 model (besides low sales), and although Sony has yet to comment on any further price cuts - it is indeed plausible to assume it will happen.
It is not known yet whether Sony will be replacing the 80GB PS3 with an entirely new SKU or just continue to push the 40 GB, we will keep you posted as this story develops. Hopefully, Sony will be making an official statement soon.
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