New Sharp Blu-ray Player Not Coming to U.S.

It's not the first time I've seen this: A product announcement circulates 'round the Web, but it turns out it's a region-centric product (generally, that translates into Japan-only or Asia-only).

The latest example of this: Reports of Sharp's newly announced Blu-ray Disc player, complete with HDMI 1.3 and Dolby TrueHD support. Problem is, this is a Japan-only product; it's not coming to U.S. shores--at least not anytime soon.

According to Sharp, the only Blu-ray Disc player slated for the U.S. is the model introduced at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show seven months ago. That model, the $1199 BD-HP10U, is still coming to the U.S.--but Sharp's spokesperson still couldn't pinpoint when.

My own speculation: Sharp is either going to push the product out-the-door to beat the October 31 deadline, when the updated Blu-ray specs kick into gear; or, the company is going to hold the product until after the specs change over, and release a more full-featured, more competitve product.

The Internet is the great equalizer--not only are product announcements for one territory released in another, but so too are advertising campaigns. In some ways, the latter underscores cross-cultural differences--see Sony Europe's avant garde, high concept Blu-ray videos.

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