| Jay520 said: This is surely going to he an interesting holiday. I think the PS3 & 360 gap will decrease even more by the end of the year, but not by much. The PS3's biggest thing going this year is of course the remodeling. If the Xbox 360's remodel and the PS3's previous remodel serve as good indicators of the future, then this new pS3 Slim should be extremely powerful. This remodel will be big for Sony regardless of if there is a price cut or not. I'm really not sure if Sony will decide to cut the price this year. The Slim alone will do wonders for Sony because of more hardware sold AND cheaper costs for each unit so Sony could decide not to cut the price and reap hefty profits for the next year or so. Or Sony may think its better to lower the price if they see the Wii U and potential Xbox cuts as threats to their own sales. They may decide its best to cut the price to stay competitive during the holiday. - Also, is the Slim really a lot cheaper than the current model? I've been hearing a lot of people saying the Slim costs considerably less to manufacture, but I haven't seen any evidence. Can anyone clarify this? This will definitely be a factor in Sony decision on cutting the price or not. I personally don't think Sony needs to price cut this year(...) |
Well Jay, there just isn't any good data on what things might cost. The original PS3 had a 65nm Cell chip and a 90nm RSX graphcis chip, the current model had a 45nm cell and a 65nm RSX and later replaced that with the 40nm RSX. A 32nm cell chip supposedly exists but cost for it is not known and I'm not sure who or when it is being made. If it works out the 32nm chip could be cheaper but it would sure reduce the cost of the rest of the PS3 by shrinking the motherboard, the heat syncs, cooling fans, power supply, and case. The same goes for a 28nm RSX chip but there doesn't seem to be much info on Nvidia making it or making it cost effective. If Sony has been doing the work and making some ground with IBM, Tobisha, and Nvidia maybe a cost effective solution was reached and the 28/32 chip sets are being produce/schedules to be produced in the future. Maybe the redesign isn't coming this year but the next? We did just find a lead from Brazil, we could be expecting it way too early.
Sony did buy that Toshiba plant last year, maybe they are looking to develop the 32nm or even the rumored Cell RSX combo chip that will be 60nm. They just need Nvidia to work with them. Essentially if they can make smaller chips that actually cost less, that with the reduced cost of materials will provide a PS3 that costs around $100 to make, which is speculation but given the size reductions to everything; case, motherboard, chips, heat syncs, power supply, and there is the possibility of it being fanless, it could cost around $100.
At that price the $150 16gb model is possible, but they could sell it at $200 and have the 250gb $250 and the 500gb $300. It depends on what the actual cost to produce ends up and wether they need to maintain PS3 sales. But know that the 16gb model will be no more than $200. Unless it does take till next year to launch then it will probably be the $150/$200/$250 set up.
Anyway, here is a site that has some crazy info on it, though it doesn't seem fully updated to respond to the latest rumors, but they have way more than I can make up on my own.
http://ps3ultraslim.com/news/?p=91
Before the PS3 everyone was nice to me :(
