Here's a take on sony's strategy from somebody that actually has a degree in finance.......
Sony wants to use the PS3 to drive sales in its other divisions, and lately has emphasized internet connections with its other divisions (TVs, etc). The more PS3's sold, the more Blu-rays will be sold, the more CD's will be sold, the more games sold, the more HDTV's sold (the PS3 was a big part of Sony's HDNA - High def is in our DNA marketing campaign).
In terms of price and value, sony went for a high-end piece of the market initially, with a reliable product. Lately, it has used its long-standing expertise in electronics to give us a game changing slim version of the PS3, which has done a lot for the brand.
In terms of ability to spend cash, and the toleration of the risk of losing money with its projects, it is much safer and less likely to spend big on marketing than microsoft and is actually pretty close to nintendo. MS went all out with its Natal thing, its either going to make them billions or make them lose several hundred million, and i'm thinking the latter but this is better discussed elsewhere. BUT, things are getting better for sony, so expect them to compete more with the money hatting thing to get exclusives, expect more marketing mabey even to 360 levels in 2010, and expect in general a more aggressive sony in 2010/2011 than what we have seen. MS is very aggressive, when sony makes a cut, they will too, but sony is losing less $$$ and will soon be making it so expect them to use some of that to strike back with.
Also, notably, the PSN isn't the only sony network venture.....Sony is also aiming to connect almost all of its products, HDTV's , PS3's , PSPgo's, PC's , Blu-ray and DVD players to connect to the internet so that Sony can sell people stuff over the net, which will offer higher margin ( or something sold online has a greater chance of being for profit than something sold out of some walmart ). Also, I expect the PSN service to get a lot better, so that it is a strength rather than a weakness, b ecause sony wants the higher margins.
Also, a lot of people have said that Sony is becoming an intellectualproperty/royalty company as well as a consumer electronics company. It brought the first OLED TV to market and will be getting patent money from the other TV makers if they want to make TVs. It will be getting patent money for its blu-ray product as well.
