Here are the answers from Sony's Blu-ray to Toshiba HD DVD announcements.

Update:
Samsung BD-P1000 Available for Pre-Order

Samsung announces that their BD-P1000 Blu-ray player will ship early spring. Samsung says that the BD-P1000 will be the first available Blu-ray player in the United States. Which indirectly tells us that the Sony PS3 is not launching in Spring in the United States.

The Samsung BD-P1000 has an MSRP of approximately $1,000. That is twice the price Toshiba wants for their HD DVD entry model HD-A1.
The BD-P1000 also features HDMI output. It is like the Toshiba players backward compatible and supports DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R.
Samsung showed the BD-P1000 already at the IFA 2005 in Berlin. The Blu-ray site has a hi-res photo of this Blu-ray player.

Video Business Online reports about the Blu-ray movie line-up for this Spring. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will have 20 Sony and MGM titles including XXX and Robocop available in March.
Bridge on the River Kwai and Black Hawk Down are supposed to be released on dual layer Blu-ray by Sony as well in 2006. Sony will also release Blu-ray discs with uncompressed audio data. The Fifth Element and The Last Waltz are supposed to be the first ones.
Early adopters have to make a though decision 2006. HD DVD or Blu-ray? I do not know the answer.
It is a pity that Toshiba and Sony did not agree on one HD format.