| RJ_Sizzle said: I personally think MS is taking a loss on them just to make it look like an attractive product for the price, I keep hearing this supposed $15 dollar figure for including the parts thrown around, but that doesn't seem likely. Once this quarter's up, we're going to see some staggering revenue loss on the Xbox division's part. I don't think the money is a concern though. MS just wants to keep the brand going until Scorpio launches. They're never going to make money on the hardware, but they don't want the division to die either, so they'll take the hit. |
Thansk for weighing in RJ_Sizzle, but while anybody can throw around numbers, I'm hoping to have actual substantiation of figures,
because otherwise somebody says $50, somebody says $100, somebody says $5, that isn't a basis for coherent analysis.
Looking at single-unit prices for internal drives will put a cieling on this, which looks around $15 difference from my scoping of PC part sellers,
but actual production costs is what matters, considering the economies of scale here and that Sony produce drives themself.
(consumer price difference can easily be higher even when actual product cost is the same, just look at Apple)
The actual drive part #s are known so can be compared specifically (MS is using LG, AFAIK),
but comparison of bulk OEM costs for 4k capable (BDXL) vs cheaper Blu Ray drive would establish a starting point for comparison.
Many Blu Ray drives were not even sold as 4k capable, but were later able to be firmware patched, so it's not some exclusive thing.
(of course many manufacturors won't bother to release a firmware patch for their products, because they don't make $ from it)
