PS3 Manufacturing Costs

[drkohler]

drkohler said:

Seihyouken said:

NJ5 said:

@Seihyouken: Do you really think they can save $75-$125 just from reducing the Cell to 45nm, or did I misunderstand your post?

Anyway I don't give much importance to those iSuppli reports, for starters they don't even state their assumptions on the exchange rates. And they're retty clueless in their predictions which doesn't give much credence to their analysts.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you of all people that the revision coming later this year isn't simply swapping the 65nm Cell for the 45nm one. It goes a lot deeper than that. Pretty much the entire innards of the console will be restructured. Heatsinks, outer air vents, and other internal components will be reduced in number, reduced in size, and in some cases removed entirely

ok, some reality check here:

...

So what does Sony save by going from 65nm to 45nm ? The surprise answer is zero, ziltch, nada. Until the development costs are recouped. Once there, the cost savings will be in the order of $30-$50 (for both chips together). And finally, manufacturing a PS3 costs around $350 now (my estimate from industry experience, no sources available).

 

So.. bringing back the never ending discussion of how much the manufacturing costs of a PS3 are.

In various threads, I have given a few estimates during the past year and have occasionally been ridiculed about my $330-$350 estimates (particularly by two circle jerks). We have the direct answer from the earnings conference call that just ended:

Sam Levenson (Execcutive SVP of IR), Quote:

"The competitive cost versus the price, as of September, the cost is probably higher a little over 10% compared to the price. But we are expecting towards the end of our fiscal year, which is March next year. The cost is probably one digit higher than the price, in other words, probably somewhere in the middle of the 5% or 6%. So therefore, we are expecting that sometime following fiscal year, relatively break even across the profit for PS3 operations."

So adding around 15% to the selling price for a PS3 Slim ($300).. we get almost exactly the estimated $350.