I just don't see these as good points for Sony...
A product sells over 3 million worldwide in 5 and 1/2 months and it is a flop?
If only we knew how many were returned. This number just speaks to the brand loyalty and probably the economical price of the Blu-Ray player. Some were touting 'we get a free GT HD!' and 'Motostorm is coming!' as reasons for a purchase. How many are still playing GT HD, and Motorstorm ended up with yawn-like ratings. It's pretty, but not all that original and not a system seller.
Is this because Sony is losing money on each sold. Most console manufacturers that push the technology envelope usually lose money in the first couple of years a product is out (anyone remember M$ in this discussion--they have yet too see any profit on their console business).
Ya but I bet MS is making bank in licensing, accessories, software and microtransaction commissions. Most everything is free on the PS3 network? And how much content per game is available?
In addition, the PS2 continues to sell consoles extreemly well and the software sells of PS2 games is thru the roof. The profit on the PS2 and their games is off the charts.
The wonders of a reasonable price point. This is not a good thing for the PS3.
Nintendo would love to be making the money on the Wii that Sony is currently making on the PS2 line.
The wonders of a reasonable price point. But they don't have to bank on a previous system, they have a successful console for this generation.
Because of this Sony can weather a loss for the first two years of their product. Maybe with the removal of the PS2 chips and 65n chips coupled with a lower cost Blue laser (they have found a much cheaper way with lower cost to produce) will help this price drop.
As long as they do this without removing functionality this is all great stuff (see: Europe)
This asside, a price drop of the 60gb unit to under $500 might push sells but if it gets down to say $449 or even goes closer to $400 get out of the way. There will be a rush to purchase the product. I would like to see the PS3 hit around $429 as it would counter Toshiba's move on their standalone to the $400 range and negate any price advantage that Toshiba might be enjoying. It also might just end this so called 'format war'.
Now this is bad. You don't want to drop the price and see it successful because it then becomes the cheap Blu-Ray player again... that's why it sold a chunk of what it has, and likely won't repeat that business until the format war is over.
It needs to be marketable as a gaming machine. If you want the price lower to compete withe other
HD Players instead of focusing on upcoming content as a system seller then the PS3 camp is more desperate than I thought.