Blue Laser-based Burner for US$500 by the End of the year?

While the war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray is far from being over, both competitors only have 2 ways to force the consumer market to choose their side.
The first one is linked to video content and film industry, and relies on the availability of the movies on either HD-DVD or BD media, and this is directly driven by the agreement of each Movie Majors with one of the two competitors. Consumers are currently trapped by such system, and would need a standalone player of both blue-laser type to be able to watch all available movies in HD format.
The other way is of course the cost of the blue laser player, and we should expect new models by the end of the year with a target price set below the marketing limit of US$500, while featuring higher specifications than models currently available.