May NPD shows sales surge for PSP while all others decline

[JSF]

Bodhesatva said:

ckmlb said:

shams said:
Sony have also spent a lot of money on a new marketing campaign... (US at least).

I still don't really understand all this. How many people on this forum would buy a PSP, then NOT buy games for it?

Is Sony making money off PSP hardware alone?

(recent figures have shown DS:PSP software sales to be around 6:1... where hardware is closer to 2.5:1?)

This would suggest that the other functions of the PSP are paying off and are selling points especially to non gamers.

My problem with this is that the UMD format is a complete flop. This isn't just anecdotal: I know with certainty that both Toys R Us and Best Buy have drastically cut down on the number of PSP movies being sold nation wide, and I can only presume it's because they didn't sell (they certainly don't at my store). Toys R Us now carries less than half the UMD movies they did 9 months ago (not just my store -- it's mandated company wide).

This means the MP3 player and photo album are the main selling points. I'm not saying that those can't play SOME role in people's decisions, but it seems unlikely that they're so important that the PSP would have half the attach rate of the DS. I'm not saying you're wrong, Ck; I'm just saying it still doesn't seem to add up in a way that makes sense to me. 

 The reason why UMD movies don't sell is because you can convert your own movies from DVD or from video files and play them off your memory card. There's no need to buy a UMD movie unless you don't know how to use a conversion program.  In other words, just because people aren't buying UMD movies, that doesn't mean they aren't using it as a video player, like an iPod Video with a much larger screen.