| TheSource said: Pachter knows they won't plummet - but I agree a small drop is likely. Computer & Videogames is quite possibly one of the most misleading sites on the internet for this type of information (see headline vs. comments). X360 Shipments: January to June 2009 : 2.9 million (1.7m shipped in Jan-Mar, 1.2m shipped in Apr-June) January to June 2010: 3.0 million (1.5m shipped in Jan-Mar, 1.5m shipped in Apr-June)
Personally, without a price cut, I would have expected X360 shipments to be about 4.2m (down from 5.2m in Oct-Dec 2009) in Oct-Dec 2010 if Kinect didn't exist. But since they'll advertise that and create some interest for it, shipments will probably be 4.8m-5.2m. Its a bit of shame they don't seem to be cutting price, because it probably means the maximum value for X360 hardware shipments in a year will be 11.2m during April 2008 to March 2009. They're only off 10% from that peak, a price cut could have gotten them to 12m-13m in a year. |
I'm guessing that MS was willing to take a small hit in overall sales for the benefit of keeping an extra $50 on each Kinect kit/Xbox SKU (presumably in profit).
If the difference was 800k, that's $40m in lost revenues (profits) due to a $50 price cut. $90m if the difference was 1.8m units. Additionally, this wouldn't include lost revenues from individual Kinect kits being sold at $99 as opposed to $150.
Even if the overall revenue generated through sales was roughly the same or even slightly less, profitability would still be taking the big hit, which MS may currently be weighing as more important than overall revenue and number of units sold.
