| Squilliam said: The percieved value aspect is something which changes with time. It relates to the price of the competition, whether or not your friends have an Xbox/PS/Wii and whether or not people are familiar with a particular brand and what services a particular console offers which is of interest to people.
Perceived value compared to other consoles doesn't change over time, provided no key factors change. For example, PS3 stopping to use Blu-Ray Drives or something huge. Microsoft not charging for the Xbox Live service any longer. Those are things that could affect the perceived value for sure.
Blu Ray may become more valuable or less valuable with time depending on the adoption rate of players. The people who already have a player now aren't likely to be swayed by this PS3 feature for example and people who are wary of upgrading are also less likely to be swayed by it as well. As an absolute, the cost of the players are coming down so the value it may bring to the PS3 may very well be diminishing. This is really a non existant factor. As Blu-Ray players drop in price, so does the cost to manufacture PS3s. As the cost decreases to manufacture Blu-Ray and marketshare increases the Non Blu-Ray playing devices will age very rapidly again giving the perceived age to the Blu-Ray playing console.
There is a very real question of whether or not Sony will be cutting the price of the PS3 by a full $100 amount this year. They could easily cut the price by $50 and maintain their present/previous years rate of sales. Furthermore even if they cut the price by $100 per year for the next two years it will be well into 2010 before they can hit that $200 price point. Furthermore the further one looks into the future the less certain any projections become. I doubt anyone can say at this point with certainty the dynamic which will be present in two years time.
Certainly not. However, you can look at past trends and make fairly accurate projections on the future. (Which is why you can come to the conclusion in your head that PS3 is destined for third place, Wii for first, etc). The consumers have spoken in many ways. As it comes to the PS3/360. Consumers feel they are about equal as a whole (Thus the very comparable sales numbers). They perceive value of the PS3 higher than the 360 but feel the 360 is at a better price point. The PS3/360 sales have been very reactionary from the get go. Microsoft has a price cut? They will see a huge boost in sales for months to come until Sony cuts their price. Then they will see a huge boost in sales for months to come. All indicators point to the fact that the 360/PS3 are similar systems in the public eye (Beyond all the bickering back and forth) with the PS3 being more valuable but the Xbox 360 being the better deal. It's very much a quality vs quanity thing. I would say the general public views the 360 as say a Chevy Cavalier in terms of quality but with a reasonable entry point. Where as I would say the general public views the PS3 as say a Volkswagen Passat in terms of quality but a little out of the price range of the standard buyer. (Please don't turn this into a car thing haha).
The reason beyond the financial implications that Sony isn't rushing out and lowering the price of the PS3 relative to the 360, is that they know of this quality value that people see in their system. If they go slashing prices for no particular reason not only do they lose more money in some regards they also lose that perceived value factor.
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Regardless, Sony has to make a choice. A 50$ price cut, twice in different strategic spurts might be intelligent. Or it might not be enough to encourage the sales they hope for.
