| Dianko said: Be that as it may, MS isn't Sega. And MS isn't Sony. They have WAAAAAAAAAY more money. If you can't reduce costs (and there is no evidence that they can't), they can always take a small hit on their cash reserves to accomplish a price cut. Also, while you are correct that Sony is better at lowering costs, keep in mind that the 40GB intro was not accomplished by lowered production costs but rather a $3 billion IPO. |
Everything Sony has done from launch with respect to hardware, has been to reduce costs. While MS has done some things, they have also done the following:
- Paid for 16-30% replacement units.
- Added HDMI ports
- Improved cooling
All those things cost money. Also, the components in the 360 have not gone down in manufacturing costs as fast as the ones in the PS3. The BR is now cheaper, the Cell is cheaper, and soon it will again be cheaper. They removed PS2 Hardware, they can go with a cheaper cooling system because of the hardware removed. They removed USB ports, and because the system requires less power, the components to power it cost less.
MS still has to worry about failure rates. If they have it at 10% now, then you have to tack on 10% more cost for everyone sold.
Also, every price cut was Sony idea to stimulate sales, not in reaction to anything MS did with respect to a sales price. In fact when MS lowered the price on the 360, it was in response to Sony. It's my belief that Sony wanted to low end PS3 to cost somewhere in the $299 range, and I feel Sony will probably keep aggressively dropping the price until they can reach that goal. MS played it's hand early, and forced Sony to bring a product to market far sooner then they would have wanted, thus the price was way to high. All these cuts have been to steadily correct that, not because MS forced them to do anything.
I think when another price drop comes, it again will be Sony driving it. I don't think the public knows for a fact what each 360 cost MS, but I am sure it's a lot higher then what MS projected it to be at this point when they launched the 360. I have no idea how MS will handle a price drop from Sony. Now that they have started turning a profit, I doubt they want to go back into the red.
