Those of us who have not yet plunged into the world of HD optical media are getting left in the digital dust. Today, Sony announced that they are already moving towards the release of their second-gen Blu-ray burner, which will be able to write Blu-ray discs at 4X. That's twice the current Blu-ray burners on the market are capable of, and the data-recorded versus time-spent is looking quite good:

The new BWU-200S model cuts BD-R burning time by half compared to the first generation model, allowing for a full 50GB BD-R disc to be recorded in about 45 minutes. It also features improved DVD burning speeds, making it a multi-format combo burner that eliminates the need for more than one drive in a system
The units will retail for around $600, which for a Blu-ray burner is not terrible. It still puts the unit well out of the price range of a regular consumer, but is only half of the introduction costs of the original Blu-ray burners.

However, will it stand a chance against manufacturers who offer multi-format units, especially when tier-1 companies like HP are making them stock options? Unless they can really drop prices by a massive amount over the next few years, I doubt it.