The Chinese now have an official BDA approved Blu-ray Disc Test center within their borders. The Blu-ray Disc Association recently certified CESI Technology Co Ltd to perform verification of Blu-ray Disc products.
Due to this development, Blu-ray Disc technology production is expected to increase in China, particularly with Blu-ray Disc players. Local Chinese manufacturers will now be able to verify their Blu-ray product functionality inside their own country rather than shipping out internationally. This should lead to more Chinese Tech companies developing and producing Blu-ray products.
We've already seen that Chinese manufacturing can help reduce the cost of Blu-ray equipment with the introduction of Funai manufactured Blu-ray players. Funai is a Japanese company with Chinese manufacturing facilities who introduced the lowest price Blu-ray Profile 1.1 (BonusView) player into the United States. This player debuted at Wal-mart for just $298.
With more and more Chinese companies working on Blu-ray, we can hopefully look forward to even lower priced Blu-ray players. This is particularly noteworthy because the introduction of low cost Chinese DVD players was one of the main stimuli for the rapid adoption of the DVD format. Could a tidal wave of cheapo Chinese Blu-ray players be on the way?
