First of all, great data!! It's interesting that for many years, the Sony games division actually carried the rest of the company, now the situation is reversed for now.
We have 2 huge companies trying to one-up each other in the razors and razorblades game. Each company has positive and negative factors going for them. I'm sure MS knew Japan would be a struggle, and that Sony knew it had the highest-priced console.
But I think the big X-factor that neither anticipated was the Wii. Who knew the Wii would be cleaning house, and will likely take the lead by the end of the year? That throws a massive wrench in both Microsoft's and Sony's financial projections IMO, as they're competing for a smaller piece of the pie than they thought (the non-Wii pie). I know the Wii target market is a bit different, but on the whole it's hard to imagine that Wii sales haven't impacted Sony or MS (especially Sony in Japan!)
Executives at both companies are going to have plenty of sleepless nights the next couple of years. If Nintendo sells the most, how many console sales are realistically left for MS and Sony to fight over? Can their business models allow for profitability in a post-Wii world? I don't think either wanted to cut prices, but Sony was deepest in the hole and blinked, and now MS is going to as well. For their large head start, MS hasn't exactly set the world on fire. It probably could've been worse if Sony had just used DVD in a$400 PS3, but they chose BR for other strategic reasons.
It's quite possible that MS and Sony may roughly split the rest of the market, as both companies are so heavily invested that they're both 'all in'. MS has more money to use, but Sony is more desperate as the PS3/Blu-Ray is a 'bet the company' type platform.
This will be good for gamers in that no one may end up with a dead console, but it will spell continued losses for both Sony and MS IMO, with not enough payout at the end to make up for it. Regardless, I'm sure they'll be lining up for the next round, but they may not assume such a huge initial loss per unit, it's a risky strategy. Especially if Nintendo continues with another successful, cheaper next gen console.
