Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray DVD player will drop 20 percent or more in price this holiday season, the head of the company's consumer electronics division said.

The price for the high-definition movie player, which produces sharper images than traditional DVD machines, will decline to less than $400 from $499.99 now, Stan Glasgow, president of Sony Electronics, said today in an interview.

``Blu-ray is going to continue to reduce in price in a normal fashion,'' Glasgow said at Sony's offices in New York.

The Sony player and HD DVD, backed by Toshiba Corp., are vying to be the new home-entertainment standard. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to sell Toshiba's for $98.87 for one day tomorrow as part of its ``Secret In-Store Specials'' strategy leading up to the holidays. HD DVD usually sells for just less than $300.

Consumer electronics prices overall will decline at about half the pace they did during the 2006 holiday season, Glasgow said. Orders are up over last year, he said.

``We see this holiday season as strong,'' Glasgow said. ``Almost every category we have is up from forecasts.''

Sony, based in Tokyo, begins selling tomorrow a $399 version of the PlayStation 3 video-game console that includes a Blu-ray player.

In addition to Sony, Blu-ray is backed by Samsung Electronics Co. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. HD DVD has support from Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp.

Sony American depositary receipts, each equaling one common share, lost 36 cents to $49.10 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have gained 15 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meg Tirrell in New York at mtirrell@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 1, 2007 16:25 EDT