| SlorgNet said: Both the Wii and the PS3 are going to have record-breaking years. The 360 is in a self-inflicted bind - it will never be able to compete with the Wii's mass market on price and functionality, and it has no BluRay/HDDVD capacity, so it can't compete with the PS3 over the long haul. And no, the 360 can't just drop its price to $300 and expect a sales miracle. Sony is prepared for this - they could easily shave another $50 off the PS3 tomorrow if they had to. (Their margins in the all-important European market, which is catching up to the US market fast, are astronomical.) |
This doesn't make sense. Sony can easily drop the price you say, being prepared for X360 price cuts, you're implying that Sony has better margins to drop the price than MS. What makes you believe that? Just because the PS3 dropped by $200 already, and X360 only with $50, you seem to draw the conclusion that the potential to reduce production costs is higher for Sony. Well, that's wrong, plain and simple.
Anyone who isn't somehow blinded by the recent sale success of the PS3 will still remember what caused Sony to drop the price a 2nd time in it's first year: crappy sales and desperation. Sony probably didn't have any room to cut the price to $400 so fast, but they had to do it to save the console, so they did it anyway. And why has MS only dropped the X360 with only 50 bucks in two years? Well, you could argue about shareholder demands about profitability of the MS entertainment division, but it sure also was a clear sign of confidence. You have to analyze the current sales trends in light of this.
We haven't seen any cost reduction estimations recently for any of the consoles, but all sane logic says that MS is the one who has potential left for drastic price cuts in the near future if nessecary, not Sony. I strongly believe that the X360 Premium version could have been dropped another $100 by now, it's just that MS is strategically saving those price drops for later. Expect to see one very soon though, and with the recent development with rising PS3-sales, Blu-ray winning the disc format war, and what not, expect a drastic one:
X360 Premium will cost $250 within 3 months from now.
Another 10 million consoles sold worldwide by 31st Dec '08.
That's 2008, the year of the Xbox for ya'll.
