Would Sony have been better off to launch two years after the 360?

[misterd]

No.

1) Part of the reason Sony could drop their price to current levels is because of the manufacturing of the PS3. Without that experience, without the economy of scale, the cost of the components would not have dropped so quickly.

2) Game publishers would not have sat on their hands waiting for Sony, especially since they would have been staring at a phenomenal Wii launch and likely even better 360 numbers. PS3 would have been looking at an installed user base even lower than what it is now, which would have made it far less appealing to publishers of GTA4, MGS4, etc - especially in comparison to the 360. It is very likely that you would have seen several of these titles become 360 exclusives (true or limited).

3) The PS3 put BluRay over the top. At the start of the format war, sales dedicated BR and HDDVD players were about equal - it was the sudden addition of 4 million more BR players via the PS3 that helped give BR the edge. No PS3, no BR victory (either the war would be continuing or HD would have won), and whooosh goes a big benefit for Sony.

4) Right now the PS3 is doing well because it has had time to establish itself, make mistakes and correct them. Launching now (or a few months ago) it would still be in that "window of uncertainty", 15m behind the 360, and almost 20m behind the Wii, and still suffering through many of the problems they had last year. By the time they made corrections it may have been too late to salvage the console.