| Aquamarine said: Sony is most influenced by the ridiculous profit Apple and Samsung make by releasing slightly upgraded new phone models every year. |
But unlike Sony, Apple and Samsung's users don't pay $400 every 2-3 years for new phones. Most of their users pay $0-$100 up front and pay the rest of the phone off over the course of their cell phone contract. Without cell phone service providers subsidizing the cost of these phones, most cell phone users wouldn't update their phone every 2-3 years. They'd wait much longer, or if they did, they'd buy phones outright at a much lower retail cost than the phones they get now.
If Sony's idea is to set up some kind of service where I spend $15-$20 a month and I get a new console every 2 years, then I'll be more open to the idea of this model. But Microsoft tried this with the Xbox 360 already, and very quickly and quietly pulled the plug on it.
