In this analysis I'll be comparing the sales of the PS3 & 360 in the most significant regions . It's important that I state some of the assumptions I used to maintain impartiality , firstly I've assumed that the cheapest console is the only console that is actually selling this is because there is no sales statistics that show the spread between Sku's for the respective consoles . Secondly I assumed that others is only Europe and all figures for others are in Euro which will be converted to the dollar at the current exchange rate . I'll be leaving out Japan as they aren't really a significant factor in the HD market and I can't be bothered to do the calculations.
Sales for week ending 18th of october.
Xbox 360 Core Arcade Bundle by Microsoft (Oct 23, 2007) (Xbox 360)
Buy new: $199.99
Playstation 3 80GB by Sony (Aug 20, 2008) (PLAYSTATION 3)
Buy new: $399.99
US price difference : $200
PS3 Sales : 58,867
PS3 sales revenue assuming all consoles sold where cheapest SKU : $23,487,933
XBOX 360 Sales : 86,843
XBOX 360 sales revenue assuming all consoles sold where cheapest SKU :$ 16,644,957
Source : Amazon.co.uk
Xbox 360 Core Arcade Bundle by Microsoft (Oct 23, 2007) (Xbox 360)
Buy new: €150
Playstation 3 80GB by Sony (Aug 20, 2008) (PLAYSTATION 3)
Buy new: €362
UK price difference : €150
PS3 Sales : 73,618
PS3 sales revenue assuming all consoles sold where cheapest SKU : $34,570,514.14
XBOX 360 sales :67,823
XBOX 360 sales revenue assuming all consoles sold where cheapest SKU: $16,275,491.54
PS3's Worldwide sales revenue :$ 58 058 447
XBOX 360's Worldwide sales revenue $ 32 920 448
Difference in sales revenue : + $ 25 137 999 ( PS3)
Now the point isn't that Sony is able to generate more profits from their hardware as that would take far more information than the average person has access too but the PS3's sales revenue indicates that there is indeed more demand for the PS3 than there is demand for the 360 , if the PS3 sold more than the 360 then you could argue that it was just due to it being incredibly cheap but interestingly enough the PS3 is generating more revenue with fewer sales than it's nearest competitor.
This would indicate that if the cheapest PS3 was nearer the price of the cheapest XBOX 360 Sony would still generate more sales revenue (and achieve greater market share in turn. It appears the more customers are willing to pay a premium for the PS3 than they are the 360. however it's difficult to afford the PS3 at such a high price point especialy considering the economic climate the consumer isn't as willing to spend big as they were previously.
Sony won't be too worried by the current sales figures as they still hold decent market share , the need to price cut isn't as apparent as previous years . On the other hand Microsoft should be worried that the XBOX 360 is only able to outsell it's nearest competitor by 20,000 units whilst being half the price.
Sources
Currency Conversion : http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Sales figures : Vgchartz.com
Prices : Amazon.com/.co.uk
