they might not even be losing money on any ps3 PS3 Slim costs Sony $100 on every sale?
Aug. 20, 2009 (5:34 am) By: Matthew Humphries
With the introduction of the PS3 Slim Sony has given gamers what they have been requesting for a long time – a price cut. It went further than that though offering a smaller unit that also saves owners money with reduced power requirements. With news previously that Sony had managed to cut the PS3 manufacturing costs by 70% things were looking up with the company supposedly having a cheaper, profitable console.
That may not be the case, however, if a report on Japanese news show Pipitto! is to be believed. The show had a segment covering why Sony had introduced the revised machine at the new lower price. To aid in the explanation a representative from the Daiwa Institute of Research was on hand with graphs of sales and pricing information. The surprise came when she suggested that the new PS3 Slim is actually costing Sony $100 more to manufacture per machine than the selling price meaning Sony is still making a loss on every sale.
The stream of the show is available to watch on the TV Tokyo website, but unfortunately everything is in Japanese making it difficult to follow unless you speak and read the language.
Read more at Andriasang.com
Matthew’s Opinion
I’m not sure how accurate this report is in terms of getting the manufacturing price right based purely on what we have heard about cost reductions in the PS3 manufacturing process. We first heard about a significant reduction in cost back in January when iSuppli said Sony had seen a 35% reduction meaning the fat PS3 was costing $448 to make. Then at the end of July Sony stated during an investment call that manufacturing cost had dropped 70% to just $210 per machine.
What the Daiwa Institute are therefore suggesting is that the PS3 Slim has increased that manufacturing cost by almost double. That’s the bit I find hard to believe. Reducing the size of the machine does mean using new parts and there may be an initial higher cost because of that, but I doubt it would add $190 to the price.
Even if Daiwa has got it right that cost should come down pretty swiftly as more machines are shipped and ordered. Sony must also be saving money on shipping costs due to the reduced weight and being able to fit more consoles into the same space.
source http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/31/ps3-manufacturing-costs-down-70-percent-strange-it-doesnt-fee/
edit: this is the source: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/ps3-slim-costs-sony-100-on-every-sale-20090820/ though the other one is good too
