San Francisco (CA) - Philips announced this week that its pending BDP7200 player will no longer earn the designation of the cheapest player on the market, as it is raising the launch price from around $350 to $400.

The device was set to have the lowest MSRP for a Blu-ray player when it was announced in January, before the effective end of HD DVD.  However, it will now be the same price as Sony's BDP-S300 and lower-end Playstation 3.

The Philips player was announced at the beginning of this year.  Philips "thought that would be the cost at the time," said a Philips spokesperson in a TVPredictions.com story.  She did not give a reason for the price hike, but defiantly argued that it had nothing to do with HD DVD's demise.

On the retail front, Blu-ray player pricing has steadily increased since the HD DVD fallout, likely because of the lessened competition and/or increased demand now that the war is over.