Blu-ray’s impact on the market was and continues to be much lower than its producers expected, holding on to an eight percent share and not gaining any ground on the market’s leading product, the DVD.

Sony is not ready to give up the fight, releasing a new 8x Blu-ray writable drive, called BWU-300S. At its speed, the 300S can burn a full 25GB disc (single layer) in about 15 minutes and a full 50GB disc (dual layer) in about 30 minutes.

Sony’s officials are confident that the public’s perception will change and that their offer will soon be appreciated at its true value. "Consumers are demanding a better experience," said Bob DeMoulin, marketing manager for branded storage products in Sony Electronics' IT Products Division. "Not only are we providing state of the art hardware, but also the industry's most complete software bundle and premium content."

Still, the company is extremely far from its goal of reaching a market share of 50 percent by the end of the year.

The problem is that unlike what Mr. DeMoulin claims, most people are satisfied with the image offered by standard DVD, which is enhanced for some by their HDTVs. Because the difference between the two is not considerable, very few see the point in spending money on it, as besides the Blu-ray player, they must also spend more on Blu-ray movie purchases and rentals.

Sony’s new offer includes a Men in Black Blu-ray movie disc, but it might not be enough to attract the kind of user base that the company is looking for.