A lot of people were surprised that a Sony 4K Blu-ray player was not announced at CES 2016. Though an announcement would have been typical and almost expected from Sony, I’ve argued that it makes little sense for them to launch such a player with there are few 4K TVs on the market and even less 4K Blu-ray movies, if any. John Anderson, country head for Sony UK and Ireland:

Certainly back in October/November 2015 it wasn’t clear we were going to come out with one at all and it’s relatively new information that within FY2016 that we will see something. That’s new information. It’s being accelerated. Maybe that’s due to more information and confidence coming through from Sony Pictures?

 It was a question of priority and investment in all the things we have got to do, therefore they’re speeding it up.

More comments from Sony after the jump.

All this makes sense. Creating a 4K Blu-ray player was likely of little technical challenge for Sony but releasing something that’s not yet needed by the market would mean Sony shipping players for people who have 4K TVs and plan to eventually purchase 4K movies as well – a small market and not likely one investing money into yet. Adding to it, Sony Pictures has announced a handful of 4K and 4K HDR films but they’ve yet to hit market.

I think what we’re seeing now is momentum behind the way the software is developing. There is a speed at which the content will come, and there will come a point when you will have enough content out there to make it worthwhile commercially to persuade retailers to put it (hardware) in more than one of their stores. You need to show momentum behind the content, else you just end up putting it into a limited number of stores.

Discuss:

Do you think it’s wise for Sony to hold back their 4K Blu-ray player?

[Via Inside CI]