Reading the tea leaves I think we have this :
Sony announces the PS4 'Neo' as basically a 'slim' type model akin to previous gens, with little to no bluster, and mostly focused on 4K media capabilities (4KBD, HDMI 2.0+, Wireless AC, etc).
The new APU is basically a given, as the new lithography has already been confirmed long ago by insiders in the industry. So tapeout, samples, etc has already happened and moved to general production. From everything we know, Sony has gone for a middle ground approach, instead of maxing out the same TDP, which would lead to a similar die size and power/heat profile but maximum performance gain, they have stuck with the same CPU cores while doubling the GPU side and increasing clock speeds a bit. This would result in an APU that uses maybe 33% less energy and has a corresponding clock speed % increase in CPU speed, and a bit more than double GPU performance (when memory bandwidth isn't the bottleneck).
So the technology kind of forced their hand in a way. They knew Microsoft might use the post-28nm switchover to jump-start a new gen, so they probably didn't want to get caught with their pants down should they decide to hot-launch a much more powerful Xbox product. In an ideal world for them they could have just gone with a pure die-shrink of the original APU, which would be INCREDIBLY cheap to make. As it is, the middle-ground approach they took will still be far cheaper than 28nm was for them. There will be a lot more dies per wafer, and 28nm yields were honestly pretty bad until about a year ago. Reports on both 14nm and 16nm production shows a sizable increase in yields and much fewer problems (things that cause respins and new tapeouts can cost tens or hundreds of millions in development and delays!).
So Sony is left with a decision : hype the performance and improvements possible in gaming, or downplay it and slot it in as a de-facto replacement for the PS4 without risking a rename/rebrand crisis. I think they will choose the latter. Digital Foundry et al will of course hyperanalyze the improvements in resolution/etc, but unless MS starts a PR battle again (power of ESRAM! power of Cloud!, remember those?), they will not say much about gaming changes. It would be stupid to risk upsetting the very lucrative apple cart.
Given production and cost realities, sourcing, contracts with suppliers, etc, I can comfortably say that :
(1)- PS4 original APU is no longer available, only old stock to the end of the previous contracts (which have been replaced with contracts and supplies for 'Neo' APU model.
(2)- New APU is certainly cheaper to Sony than the one they used in the OG model.
Those facts being what they are, OG PS4 will disappear from stores before very long, and I expect 'Neo' to replace it at the same cost OR LESS! We could see $199 PS4s by holidays 2017, and probably even $249 by this fall. People expecting them to market this as some 'premium' device at a high price are delusional imho. The casual gaming market won't want to see PS4 prices INCREASE, and Sony isn't going to waste their own precious money splitting their console line up and making old APUs.
EDIT : As to the poll, I voted something like 'old news', because I'm more or less ambivalent about this turn of events. I thought the previous hardware was decent enough, I'm somewhat disappointed in the overall software output this generation, great stuff like UC4/Doom/etc notwithstanding.
