I agree with NJ5; I'm fully expecting Sony to post a loss of between $500m and $1b in their Computer Entertainment division in their next financial report. The $800m loss from the previous quarter applied to a write-off from the first price cut on the PS3 (the one taking place in July). Since the last quarter only went up to September, it's unlikely that Sony factored in the costs of their second (November) price cut in their last statement. I could be wrong, of course.
It's not just the fact that Sony sold a lot of PS3s during the holidays, however (losing money on each unit sold). Their marketing expenses had to be enormous too. Speaking for America here, the number of PS3 commercials and print advertisements was huge during the past two months, far more than any other competing console. I'm sure that their ad campaign ran into the tens of millions of dollars. Don't forget those ridiculous bundle deals that Sony had to trot out to sell PS3s either - "buy a PS3, get TEN free Blu-ray movies!" Or "buy a Sony HDTV, get a free PS3!" You can shift units that way, true, but it's going to cost you in the end.
By the end of the month, we'll be able to see what the true costs of the latest price drop/new model were. The analysis and comparisons should be interesting.
End of 2008 totals: Wii 42m, 360 24m, PS3 18.5m (made Jan. 4, 2008)
