They kinda look like a cross between a Betamax tape and a UMD. 

Stof, many computers and almost all laptops now come with multiple memory card readers, all of them include SD cards as standard. Dream it one day, it exists the next, thats why I love Tech ;)

Arg I hate the different memory formats. I have 2 cameras, one is sony and uses Memory Stick, one is Olympus and uses XD. I have only one device that uses SD (Wii), but I can't really use it cause my cameras don't.

Are you sure your adjusting for the earlier launch of the PS2 in Japan by my numbers the PS2 sold about 17.5 million if you adjust all the numbers so that the system would only be available in one market for 52 weeks about. By comparison the Xbox360 sold I believe about 6.5 million in this same time frame as it had a release that happened almost w/w in about 3 weeks of each other as opposed to the PS2 which released in Japan 7-8 months before the rest of the world. Also you have a point about the DS and the PSP but aren't you using the argument in reverse to the current situation you have systems that sold very comparativly their first year and then broke apart where as if a similar situation was to take place with the consoles this generation you would be talking about something more like the DS switching from its position now into its position before something I think it a lot less likely. Anyways I think you can make estimates at this point and time imo and they can be fairly accurate for example the PS2 and the Xbox360 sales at 28 weeks were already about 3.5 million apart the PS2 after a year had numbers similar to what the Wii likely will have at the end of this year no I don't believe they are dead on or couldn't change but throwing them out as way to early in the generation estimates also seems a bit ridiculous to me. 

Just for clarification:  By "sales", do you mean total sales, or do you mean weekly/monthly sales?
That is, are you saying that the PS3 will be well above, say, twelve or thirteen million units sold 
through to end users by this December, or are you just saying that it'll sell more in December 
than the 360 sells in December?

 Just a delusional Sony fan.

I think by his wording he means weekly/monthly sales...

I just wanted to point out that:

 http://videogames.yahoo.com/newsarticle?eid=470077&page=0

"Besides the impressive June numbers, NPD also released sales stats for the first six months of 2006. As of June 30, the total non-PC game industry had done $4.3 billion worth of business, four percent more than in the first half of 2005. "

Where exactly is the gaming industry more lucrative than the home video industry? $24.3 billion(2005) vs $8.6(maybe 10 in 2007)???Especially considering that if Sony's blu-ray wins(which it will, IMNotSoHO) they get a portion of EVERY BD sold. I know that this is VERY long term, but I think that it's their strategy. Also, HD penetration is MUCH higher than alot of people here seem to think, at least in the US. I do agree with most of your points, I just had the one of my own ;)

http://www.dvdinformation.com/News/press/CES010807.htm 

"U.S. HOUSEHOLD PENETRATION OF HDTVs TOPS 31 MILLION
     According to figures compiled by the DEG based on data from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), retailers and manufacturers, an estimated 12.5 million HDTVs were sold to U.S. consumers in 2006.  Nearly five million HDTVs sold in the fourth quarter alone.

     Since launch in 1998, more than 34.5 million HDTV sets have been sold to consumers. The HDTV household provides the ideal environment to enjoy high definition media players. There are currently 31 million HDTV households which are able to make full use of high definition media players, when set up properly.

     The DEG estimates that 11 percent of HDTV owners have more than one set."

Thanks for the numbers. :)

While the video market may have higher sales, I wonder how much profit they generate versus video games.  It's probably still pretty impressive and more than video games, but I'm curious as a percentage and with all things being created equal like production costs, packaging, etc.  Additionally, I wonder how much Sony brought in from DVDs versus PS items.  At one time it was the video game division of Sony that was bringing in the profits and keeping the rest of the business afloat.

So in the past eight years, about a third of US households have purchased a tv capable of displaying high definition television.  "A new CEA study, HDTV: You Have the Set, But Do You Have the Content?, found that 44 percent of HDTV owners receive HD programming. The main reasons consumers stated for not receiving the programming was that it was too expensive or they were not interested."  So they own the sets, but really aren't interested in HD.  I wonder why they bought them. ;)  There are some other useful facts in this article here:

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/15190/hd-tv-guide/

Oops, very interesting numbers, always love numerical and statistical stuff anyway :D