| starcraft said: Is there any particular reason why people think Sony can afford to drop the PS3's price quicker than Microsoft can drop the Xbox 360's? |
Sony is a CE manufacturer. It's their area of expertise. It's the same reason that XBL is so advanced compared to the PSN. MS = software, Sony = hardware.
The fact that most of Sony's manufacturing is done in-house (Blu-Ray drives, etc.) whereas MS's manufacturer is almost exclusively 3rd party (BenQ disc drives, etc.) helps to keep costs down as well. This was a major problem that MS had with the Xbox. They could never drop the price siginificantly lower than it was at launch, so they were losing money on every one that they sold throughout all 4-5 years that it was on the market. It's also the reason that they stopped production immediately upon launching the 360.
Also, because Sony uses more advanced technology in the ps3, their expenses have more room to fall. For example, DVD drives can't get much cheaper than they already are, but Blu-Ray drive costs have been dropping like made as mass production ramps up. It's estimated that Sony already cut over $400 off of the initial manufacturing costs of the ps3 because of things like this.
