HappySqurriel on 18 March 2007
kber81 said:
They lost most of their critical production capabilities - are you for real? There is nothing wrong with the fact they buy displays from Samsung. Everyone buys from Samsung or LG-Philips. No need to provide own technology. It's cheaper. Do you think Eizo is going to fall because they are using Samsung panels?
I could be wrong, but I think his point was that "Back in the day" Sony physically manufactured every component in their electronics whereas today they buy a large portion of their components from other companies. Now, in general, this should reduce the price of electronics but in the case of the PS3 it may mean that Sony does not have enough control over the price of their components ...
I personally don't know if this is true or false with the PS3, but one of the reasons that Microsoft couldn't reduce the manufacturing costs of the XBox on the scale that Nintendo could with the Gamecube (or Sony with the PS2) was that they agreed to long term contracts with component manufacturers in order to reduce the initial cost of production.