In its dogged battle to be the dominant Hi Def DVD player that consumers buy, Sony has won another battle: it has now developed
the world's smallest Blu-ray reader/writer module. The new module will make Blu-ray players less expensive.
Developed jointly with Nichia of Japan, the new laser unit is just 3mm thick and should help manufacturers miniaturise the hardware in their Blu-ray drives. Sony says it imagines the device ending up in 9.5mm laptop drives sometime this year.
Cost savings come from a simpler manufacturing process that will yield dividends in mass production, while other features include the ability to handle dual-layer BDs and disks with organic dye in the recording layers. Organic disks can be churned out from existing DVD production lines, so it's a win-win situation here.
The Hi Def wars aren't over yet, but Sony has been winning key battles this year so far against HD DVD.
In its dogged battle to be the dominant Hi Def DVD player that consumers buy, Sony has won another battle: it has now 
