basically to avoid having to lower the price on the 40 gig and while getting ready to introduce an 80 gig at the same price point.

ioi said it, and so far he has been the only one to say it. Everyone else has just been going off what he said.

Which is stupid planning by Sony.  They needed to think of a better way to do this.

They inform everyone that they are gonna quit making the 40 gig and let it sell out, while replacing it with an 80 gig (same features exactly just more storage) at this certain date, or when 40 gig out. 

Now as a consumer what am I gonna do.  Sit and wait, why buy a 40 gig, i'm gonna double my space if I wait a bit.  So then you have a bunch of people waiting for the 80 gig, yet you have Sony waiting for the 40 gig to sell out.  Seems like a dumb standstill for me.  I mean do something like just release 80 gig at 25 or 50 dollars more than 40 gig, then as soon as 40 gig out then announce you dropping price of 80 gig or something.  i don't know best way but this way is stupid.

I haven't seen any PS3s in stores in my area since early July. I hope they get their act together soon

The only reason Sony is handling the core SKU transition the way it has been, is to minimize losses on hardware. They already stated pretty clearly that a return to profitability is their first priority; not market share. What that should mean is that they will continue to try and sell as many consoles as they can at current prices.

The only explanation is that they really wanted to avoid discounting any 40GB SKUs through an inventory clearing sale (as was the case with the 60GB SKU).

The only way to do this is by thinning out discontinued stock in distro channels prior to the release of an updated SKU, which means a drop in sales along with a drop in overall availability. No way around this.

Assuming there will be remaining 40GB stock in channels after the debut of the 80GB core, there will be some sales on these old units regardless, but the overall number of inventory clearing sales should be kept to a minimum (see priority one).

So why bother with the HDD upgrade at all?

- Easier to source 80GB HDDs at the same price or less, rather than have vendors continue to produce 40GB drives just for PS3s (same situation for the 360 and its antiquated 20GB drives).

- Unwillingness to drop prices on the core SKU, but willing to add perceived value to the current unit with more storage. Weak, but could also be seen as a simple progression in storage as the platform continues to rely more heavily upon HDD space.

- Emphasizes use of DLC, seeing as how Sony recently added the video store to the PSN store to generate revenue. That alone should have been enough to eliminate 40GB drives, which are barely large enough for game installs, preview videos and demos. Few consumers will actually upgrade their own drives.

Yes, it's a very poor way of doing it.  It's short-sighted -- I think because losses have been so bad on the PS3 that they have completely turned their long term strategy around and started focusing on short-term, which is inevitably hurt their future.  There are a variety of ways to handle this that wouldn't be overly expensive and wouldn't have the negative effects of decreasing PS3 sales overall while increasing Xbox 360 sales overall:

(1) They could replace the hard drives in the 40GB units with 80GB drives at retail, upgrading the boxes the way MS upgraded their boxes with games during the holiday season last year.  They could then use the 40GB drives as repair disks, or sell them retail inexpensive so people with 20GB models or failed drives out of warranty could upgrade to 40GB drive at a low cost.  The price set would simply cover their costs of swapping the drives (so maybe $30 for a 40GB drive).

(2) They could offer a promotion such as a free movie or free 'platinum hits' game with 40GB models.  For a lot of people, the savings would be worth it including nearly anyone who didn't use PSN or wouldn't equip their PS3 with broadband.

These two points would cost Sony nothing, or almost nothing.  And they wouldn't lose the sales they're losing now by not having sufficient stock.  Some of those people who would otherwise buy a PS3 are buying a 360.  That's just a fact.

sony's letting there SKU's run out so they can start sellin new PS3 models

I suppose the theory that some of those potential PS3 purchasers decided to buy a 360 instead after seeing their E3 press conference and/or realizing they would have to wait several weeks to buy a new non BC PS3, has been proven wrong once and for all, with your post.

The people that buy PS3's just for the BR player, they shouldn't care how much storage it has, no? I guess that accounts for the sales of the console, until supply is restocked.

 Your well reasoned, concise and accurate posts have no place on VGchartz, begone with you

not everyone spends their free time going through gaming forums and watching e3 reruns.  they probably don't know that an 80gb is coming out, or they don't care.  Most aren't going to fill up their hard drive anyways.  Hell, I have been downloading a bunch of trailers in the background while I am gaming and have not filled up half of my 80gb hard drive yet.