UPDATE: Correcting the statement regarding the BD-P1400 cancellation. The device has not been cancelled and has been officially released. 

Samsung Electronics, a leading manufacturer of various consumer electronics (CE) devices, will cancel a forthcoming  Blu-ray disk player and will also postpone the release of its universal player capable of both Blu-ray and HD DVD playback. The decision will hardly affect Samsung materially, but will give its competitor LG Electronics exclusive positions to sell hybrid HD players this holiday season.

Samsung BD-UP5000 Duo HD player will only show up on the German market in January, 2008, reports Heise Online web-site, whereas customers in the U.S. will be able to get it in December, 2007, according to WesleyTech web-site. Earlier this year Samsung promised to deliver its universal Blu-ray/HD DVD player “in time for holidays”, which might mean either in Summer, or in advance of Christmas holidays.

Samsung’s Duo HD player (BD-UP5000) will fully support both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats and their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java. Besides, Samsung’s universal high-definition video player also sports Silicon Optix HQV Reon processor to enable high quality video post-processing.

The single-format BD-P2400 player was meant to become Blu-ray disc players for high-end market, however, it is rumoured that Samsung decided to cancel it due to inability to enable the latest features that are required by the latest version of the Blu-ray disc specifications. Currently Samsung ships BD-P1200 player with HQV processor for $799, whereas the low-cost BD-P1400 retails for $499.

Samsung’s inability to ship the BD-UP5000 on time means that this holiday season LG Electronics will be the only supplier of universal high-definition video players with its LG BH100 and BH200 players. Unfortunately, due to the lack of competition, pricing of those devices will remain on $800 - $1000 level, which is too expensive for mainstream users. As a consequence, the vast majority of customers interested in universal HD solution will not be able to satisfy their needs this year or will have to pick a single-format BD or HD DVD device.