Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president and Electronics CEO, mentioned in a press conference, held in Taipei on April 3rd, that Sony would add Blu-ray recorders to their popular line of LCD HDTVs. This was seen as necessary to increase global share of Blu-ray products from 20% of the market (the other 80% belonging to DVD) to 50% by the end of this year.
Since the launch of the high definition format, Sony has relied on their
PlayStation 3 to increase market share. Now that Blu-ray is taking off, Sony wants to rapidly increase the share, and their popular LCD HDTV line is seen as a ripe area to help achieve that goal.
No word on when or how much these HDTV/Blu-ray combo devices will be sold, but with the overall goal to increase Blu-ray market share by the end of this year, one would expect them to be on store shelves sooner than later.