Last we heard from Philips about Blu-ray was CES 2006 back at the beginning of January. Now I see this news about Philips and BD and have to wonder if it’s just a rehash of the CES news. I think the TripleWriter thing is new. Not only are they planning to release 25GB and 50GB BD-R and BD-RE discs, they will also be selling BD players and BD recorders:

Philips has announced its plans for the introduction of its first Blu-ray Disc consumer products ? the home entertainment player (BDP 9000), an all-in-one PC Writer (TripleWriter) and new Blu-ray media (BD-R and B-RE, single layer 25 GB and dual layer BD-R and BD-RE 50 GB).

The BDP9000 consumer player will be available in the US in the second half of 2006 and the TripleWriter (SPD7000) will be available in Europe and the US in the second half of 2006.

The new Philips TripleWriter (SPD7000) features recording and playback capabilities of all popular optical storage formats including CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

The drive features a 2x (72 Mb/s continuous data-rate) read and write speed on BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE media. The drive reads and writes a variety of legacy media including CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD+RW and DVD-RW. Additionally, Philips will launch four types of discs (BD-R and BD-RE, single layer 25 GB and dual layer BD-R and BD-RE 50 GB) together with the introduction of the TripleWriter. The TripleWriter can be built into any PCD featuring S-ATA interface.

CDRinfo - Philips Plans Intro of Blu-ray Disc Products and Media