At a press conference in Taipei on April 25, Pioneer unveiled its BDR-101A. This internal model Blu-ray disc burner for the PC is aimed at the professional user though and not even your average enthusiast, considering the $995 dollar US price tag.  This makes a bleeding edge video card look cheap!

The BDR-101A features writing speeds of 2x for BD-R (recordable or write once) and BD-RE (rewritable), 8x for DVD-R/+R and 4x for DVD-RW/+RW. The corresponding single-sided single-layer BD DVD discs have a storage capacity of 25GB and a maximum data transfer speed of 72Mbps.

That's right buddy, hold on to that puppy with both hands and don't drop it! According to general manager Shannon Yu (pictured above) of Pioneer's Optical Disc Drive Sales Division in Greater China, problems with copy protection licenses resulted in the postponement of the BDR-101A. He did add though, that Pioneer has plans for a second BD DVD burner this year. He also announced that next year is a period for "consumer education". Then he also stated that "real market demand" should begin to emerge in 2008. Time will tell!

Source: DigiTimes