That's pretty good... I'll see how much I can save over summer.

The primary goal is to make it cheaper to produce with each new iteration so that they can sell it going forward for lower price and get more people on board

Ps3blog.net has this image

If that's true, I'm suddenly interested.

Ugh.. that really hurts while reading it.

You forget that this will most likely be using the smallest cell chip size available, the current model using the medium sized die right now. I forget actual size numbers, but I know it hasn't been used yet. This will shrink the internal components, the motherboard and such, allowing to save space and the cost of materials. The smaller case is also cheaper since it uses less materials and a change to redesign it gives them a go at cheaper production, essentially they can time it for the best deals. The new die and the smaller parts consumer less power, allowing for a reduction of the size of the internal power, reducing the cost of materials. The elimination of a auto feed disk tray for this "slider" is most likely a cost and space saving technique.

The new production cost for the PS3 is most likely very reduced from the current model. If this 16bg PS3 exist, I highly anticipate a $150 price tag, with the others at $200/$250 respectively. This will allow for Sony to make profit on the consoles, as well as bolster strong sales of the device and encourage sales of big 1st party software they are releasing in its launch window. I suppose they could price it $200/$250/$300 since it would still provide a $50 cheaper version that is currently available, but since it lacks on HDD space it isn't so much a price cut as it would be a model you just didn't have to buy the HDD with, though the $250 and $300 models are getting a nice HDD size increase at no extra cost to potential buyers. If Sony anticipates good sales even at that pricing structure, I guess they could launch at $200/$250/$300 and have the flexibility to drop it down to $150/$200/$250 later and boost sales even higher. In fact that is what they will most likely do, they wouldn't want to show all their cards right away and they need the profits. This PS3 slim release serves as a sort of price drop and next year they will be able to drop the price again.

However you slice it, this is great news for everyone.

I am excited, that thing looks freaking so tiny!

hm I'm coming around to it actually. although i hope they can hit £99 in the UK

Call it ugly as much as you want. Dat Price 

You got to remember that most of the people who are calling it ugly are doing it for the 'free pass' trolling.

I for one never cared for looks of a system, and I'm sure the final look would be fine.