Anyone want to take a bet? I bet that the Vita will hit 10 million units sold by the end of next year.
If I lose, I will change my signature to an admittance that I was wrong for 6 months.

At least you bought games.

I got my PSP around launch because I could watch videos, listen to musuc and run emulators of old consoles on it lol.I have no doubt a fair few peopel who have done just the same because of the multimedia functionality of the device and it being portable was attractive.

Now that I have an android smart phone that can do the same there is no need for me to upgrade to a VITA unless games that interest me come out.

About possible price cut and profitability: PSV's estimated BOM was $159 for the 3G version in January 2012 http://www.destructoid.com/ps-vita-3g-teardown-puts-sony-s-cost-at-159-220036.phtml , in September it should be a little bit lower, and in January 2013, when on top of more time passed, Xmas will have boosted production, it should be considerably lower. So a $50 cut this Autumn won't be too painful (it will surely be, but not too much), and if they resist until next January, or even later, after clearance sales end in most countries, it will be totally painless.
This means that with very good reasons a cut could happen soon, otherwise a cut in Q1 2013 will be very likely.
In any case, it must happen after the initial boost and buzz of 3DS XL and NSMB2 settle, not before September, because they are currently monopolizing the spotlight for the portable market, and they'll do it for the rest of August, thanks to the staggered releases, and synergy with games releases and other circumstances favourable to Sony must be carefully planned: Sony's marketing cannot afford wasting it with clumsy behaviours, it must extract every possible benefit from it.

I think they should give up on trying to profit on hardware and just focus on making profit off of all of the software which will be created once they have sold shitloads of hardware. The rich Sony of the past could probably afford to do this, but todays one probably cant unfortunately..

Because Sony is only catching up at the end of the gen

Once you add the profit they must be making on the memory cards as well, there should be more than enough room for a $50 cut anytime from here on in.

The main complaint I hear about the Vita is its cost, just like it was for the 3DS at first, so once they remove this barrier its sales should surge.

Realistically, for Sony to mount a "come-back" for the Vita and get it on track to sell like the PSP they need a $50 price cut and to bundle the memory card with the system. Being that the upper management is under extreme pressure to return Sony to profitability, it is extremely unlikely that Sony will be willing to lose between $500 million and $1 billion at this point in time for a price reduction like this to take place.

To make matters worse, if Sony plans of releasing a next generation console in 2013 (which is likely), Sony will likely see a massive increase in costs within their gaming division in the next year. If Sony cuts the price of the PS-Vita the gaming division will (likely) already be seeing substantial losses before these costs 'appear', and when they begin to ramp of for the launch of the PS4 the gaming division will be in a deep hole; and become a massive target in a company where executives are desperate to reduce losses to return the company to a profit.

Is the memory card pricing actually an issue stopping people from buying it though, or is it more something most buyers find out about AFTER purchasing a Vita and complain about then? (At which point it's already been a sale whether they regret it later or not)

And as much as I hate to admit it, because I REALLY want the  next gen consoles to come as soon as possible, I don't think we'll see PS4 in 2013. You said it yourself, Sony is in bad shape money wise, so can they AFFORD to spend vast sums of money developing and producing a next gen console right now? Wouldn't it be better for them to just ride the now profitable PS3 for a few more years, as it's still selling pretty well?

lol how is ps3 losing money its the number one selling console worldwide right now. These articles about sony being doomed are ridiculous and unfounded. They have billions in assets there not going anywhere. I love these articles just like in life the worlds gonna end blah blah BLAH. Bunch of xbox lovers go make love to your xbox.

This post has been moderated - trasharmdsister12

The price of the memory card is pretty well known so I think most people who are currently buying a PS-Vita know the `real` price is $300 ...

As for the PS4, the question is whether Sony can afford not to release a console in 2013. The longer their competition is on the market the more likely they are to run-away with the market and undermine your ability to sell your system. There could be a much greater risk associated with this (once again) based on Sony's financial situation; being that they can't afford massive losses it is plausable they will release a 'PS3.5' rather than a system with state of the art technology, and if they launched in 2014 without a compelling reason to buy their system instead of the Wii U or XBox 720 it would be DOA.