How much/when will Microsoft drop the price of the 360?

[rocketpig]

MrMafoo said:

rocketpig said:

I also doubt we'll see $100 price drop on the PS3 again this year. That would be a huge drop for Sony in only 24 months on a console they were losing a boatload of money on at launch.

It would also mean that Sony has dropped the price of the PS3 by $200 in 24 months while MS has only dropped the price of the 360 by $140 in 36 months... Unless Sony wants to keep losing money faster than a member of Gamblers Anonymous in Las Vegas, they will have to slow with the price drops sooner or later.

 
I see it happening. The PS3 was released with very high-end and newly developed technology (The BR player and the CELL). It also released with PS2 hardware that has now been removed.

The speed that the components will drop in cost is a lot greater than the 360.

It’s like the new Mac Book Air with the SSD drive. Today you pay $1000 just for the HD. In two years, that same drive will probably cost 40 bucks.

I see it dropping $100 this year.

Not true. While Moore's law doesn't apply to price, most tech products follow a very similar scale, dropping in half every 18-24 months until they reach rock bottom pricing.

Prices don't drop that quickly and while the PS3 will be two years old this holiday season, it's unlikely that Sony has dropped much more than 50% off the manufacturing cost during that time. Considering that the machine reportedly cost $800 or so to make at launch, that puts it in the $350-400 range.

Don't forget that sooner or later, Sony will want to start making money on the console, too.

And BTW, if that SSD is $40 in 2 years, I will eat my hat. And a whole crow. No. Way. In. Hell. Memory prices are dropping but not that quickly. It will be a few years before we see reasonably priced SSD drives. Even middle-of-the-road HDDs (around 160GB) cost more than $40. Laptop drives are even more money, and mini-drives like the one used in the Macbook Air are even more.