yo_john117 said:
I think that Sony will drop the price by $50 again next year. |
They might well. Both MS (despite the fan stance of "no price cut") and Sony manipulated price heavily in 2011 and I think both will do so in 2012 too.
The key is to understand that 360 is much more seasonal and sells the most in a few territories while PS3 sells less seasonally in more territories. The best pricing strategy for 360 is therefore less changes to RRP and to focus on heavy discounts( via promotions) during seasonal peak. The 360 shifted a huge amount of consoles last 5 weeks or so and all of them were heavily discounted. The best pricing strategy for a less seasonal PS3 is RRP price cuts with less promotions in seasonal peaks.
If MS price cut RRP more often it would likely no be worth the smaller boost outside seasonal peak and it would mean, due to the now established lower RRP, that seasonal promotions would have to be even heavier - meaning seriously eating into margin for peak sales. Now if Sony did this they would be unable to stimulate their larger chunk of non-seasonal sales and would only stimulate their smaller seasonal sales.
Both use price to drive demand quite aggresively, but in line with each consoles noticably different sales pattens and geographic focus.
Now Sony would probably prefer to change RRP less often, but I think now they will be locked into regular RRP changes. MS (who arguably are in a somewhat better position in some ways) can afford to leave RRP unchanged for longer so long as they get the holiday promotions right and grow install base enough in those vital peaks. Both chose to lose margin to achieve their sales goals, Sony has to do so over flatter sales for the whole year and MS does so only at specific times of the year.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
