A couple of comments:
We can only make guesses as to what is Sony's real strategy, but rest assured they have a strategy. Or perhaps multiple strategies and a company of that size tends to have different factions who not always work on perfect harmony. But, at least the gaming division has a strategy, and it is way too early in to really assess whether it is a good or bad strategy and if it is working as intended.
I personally do not believe that the execs at Sony believed the brand name would carry PS3 to a PS2-level success at launch prices, they are not stupid people. However, it seems probably that PS3 is not exactly what they originally bargained for, at least the considering the cost of the system and that it was losing so much money early on. On the other hand, it seems that Sony is using PS3 as a pawn in the format war, and by winning the war they hope to recuperate losses in other divisions, such as stand alone players and royalties/licence fees.
It remains to be seen if they can actually offset the losses sustained so far, and they probably have to sustain even more losses due to the pressure from competition. Right now, the competition is other console manufacturers, but as soon as stand alone player prices come down, the competition on that front will make life harder for the PS3. It is interesting to see how Sony will position their own stand alone players against the PS3. At that point it is important that there is no internal friction between divisions, to minimize internal competition which will not increase profits.
I think happySquirrel had some excellent insight into the future of PS3 against other consoles. Unless Sony can manage a big enough game library, which will be hard given the current install base and cost of development, there will be little incentive to buy the PS3 once it has reached 300$ or 200$ price points. And to make things even more difficult, the games that will be released 2 to 3 years from now are starting planning/production now, and Sony has to be able to assure the 3rd party developers that their investment will be profitable, and preferably more so than other options.
Personally I have mixed feelings about the future of PS3. It does have great potential, and I believe that the sales so far have been actually quite good considering the price. However, the games released now have been in production since before the launch, and it remains to be seen how the library will develop now that it is clear the Wii is annihilating all competition. I don't think the other features that are in development for the PS3 really add that much value to it, because they tend to take away from the gaming capabilities of the system. Of course, if that is the direction Sony wants to take, the it is the right thing to do, but with such small hard drives I don't see the PS3 as a good multimedia-hub. In addition, I believe that people generally do not want an all-in-one device, at least not until they are as usable as multiple dedicated devices.
