These numbers somewhat confirm my long standing fear that the USA market is in the long term turning away from Sony's systems. Check out how quickly hardware has changed in the 2000s for the USA market (for GBA, GC, Wii, DS, N64 for Nintendo, PS1, PS2, PSP, PS3 for Sony, Xbox, X360 for Microsoft)
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Nint HW 7.2m 9.2m 11.1m 10.6m 8.5m 10.4m 15.8m 20.1m 20.8m 16.7m?
Sony HW 8.4m 10.6m 7.5m 5.4m 9.2m 8.4m 10.3m 9.9m 8.6m 6.3m?
Mic HW 1.4m 3.2m 3.1m 4.0m 2.8m 4.3m 4.6m 4.7m 4.8m 7.3m?
If you look at 2001-2003, the Nintendo figures are N64 / GC / GBA (they'd probably be a bit higher if you had GBC / GB hw too, but I don't). Sony's 2001-2004 figures are from only two systems - PS1 / PS2. For 2004, GC / GBA fell off and N64 was totally dead but DS made up some of the drop. For Sony, PS1 / PS2 both fell sharply in 2004 and Microsoft had its peak Xbox 1 year which hurt PS2. In 2005, GBA and GC fell further, and DS sold poorly. PSP did fairly well in 2005, PS2 rebounded, and PS1 declined - so it was a good year for Sony. Microsoft had a difficult transition year. In 2006, GBA, GC, Wii, and DS were all doing modest to good numbers. PS2 / PSP were still doing decent numbers. X360 was starting tot ake off.
The real transition happens in 2007 - Sony had in theory three active, viable systems on the market in 2007, but sold less systems then when it had only two viable systems in 2002. Same thing happened in 2008. In 2009 / 2010 PS2 and PSP have dropped off much more quickly than PS3 has risen. In 2010, it finally looks like PSP and PS2 have fallen to the point where Microsoft is now officially the second biggest player, for both hardware and software sold in the USA market.
I really don't see that changing any time soon - Microsoft doesn't make portables, and Wii is Wii - but with PSP and PS2 only likely to do 1.5m or so in 2011, Microsoft probably only has to sell 6m X360s in 2011 to beat Sony for hardware again - and thats likely doable. It doesn't look like PSP2 will be out by mid 2011, and we're likely two years or more away from PS4. So if Microsoft is to make permanent user base inroads, now is the time, given the PS2 userbase is all but disbanded and the PS3 is trending to be only half the PS2, or less in the USA market.
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
When there are more laws, there are more criminals.
- Lao Tzu
