reduced part prices doesnt = reduced cost to the consumer, manufacture costs drop all the time as suppliers of parts become more competetive etc. Sony need to start making a profit one day!

I dont think they will drop the price within a year. They are selling reasonably well and the best thay can hope for at the moment is to beat the 360, which theyre doing world wide atleast. They know good games like MGS will boost sales far better than price drops every 6 months. As this thread proves, people hesitate to make a purchase if they fear a price drop is just around the corner.

It takes a good long while to redesign a console to use a completely new chipset, based on a smaller process. A slim PS3 won't happen until next year at the earliest, because its a whole lotta new parts to put together in a whole new box, and you need to do it in factories that are all equipped with the new process, as well. IBM has managed to produce a 45nm Cell (I wish I had the link handy... it wasn't very long ago)... but it'll be a bit before said processor finds its way into the PS3 for the reasons I mentioned.

I doubt it. PS3 has already lost Sony a lot of money, and the sales are finally good. Until sony can get back to making a decent profit, i don't see a price cut anytime soon.