well from seeing some of the leaked black friday ads, i can be pretty sure there's not going to be one this holiday. It'd be stupid to do one for the holiday if it's not going to happen in time for the busiest shopping day of the year.

Sony's in a bit of a pickle. No price cut this year, but they may have a problem when it comes to PS3 sales in November and December.

Last year, at the beginning of November, the PS3 had a new 40g SKU, a new low price of $399 AND several big Blu Ray titles to push the format. This gave the system HUGE momentum. This year? None of that will be a factor (face it, Blu Ray isn't as 'hot' as it was last holiday). Add the economic situation to the mix and ... well, I guess I'll just say it:

November and December COULD be the first months of 2008 where the PS3 does not have a YoY increase.

That would be a bad situation for the gaming division financially AND as far as PR. And with retail performance being so low in October, the other divisions of Sony may be in trouble for this final quarter of 2008 (lots of companies will!).

With profitability being such an important thing to them lately, how would all of this bode for a price cut even early next year?

Sony as a collective is getting their butts handed to them in pretty much every field they operate in.   As an example Sony TV's are over priced and selling worse than "cheaper/better" competition.  This doesn't mean they are broke but if things keep going that route they very well could be.

Sony has been way to arrogant on most of their products.  Back whenever I was a child Sony was on top for 1 simple reason they had great products at competitive prices.  Sure they were a little more expensive but they were worth it.  This is no longer the case in general.  You can go get a Vizio tv which costs hundreds less and the quality will be the same if not better than Sony.

I really miss the old Sony of my childhood that was lean and mean and never arrogant.

no

While I agree with you that many of Sony's product are overpriced when compared to the competition, saying their TVs for example are similar quality or lesser quality then Vizio LCD TV's proves you haven't really done your research on TV's.  Sony's TVs are still almost across the board considered some of the very best on the market.  Their XBR line of LCD TV's has been some of the highest LCD TVs ever. The picture quality and depth of color is just jaw dropping.  While most people would still consider the Vizios good TVs there not in the same league as Sony's.  The problem is the same as most people see in Blu-ray vs. upscaled dvds.  Vizios are good enough, and offer a decent picture at a more then decent price.  It'd be better to compare Sony TVs to Samsung TVs, which are still priced lower.

A long story short, I do agree that many of Sony's products are over priced, however, they still do make some of the best quality products on the market.

Samsung and sony have a joint venture into LCD technology.  They are effectively the same television with the exception of engine.  Sony's V series line and XBR line regularly outperform the coresponding samsung line.  Aside from that the other lines perform equal.  They are also priced within 5-10% of one another.

it wasn't the ps3 but the change from weaker dollar to a stronger yen.

they posted a profit before that shit began.

That's exactly why i thought it would be a better comparison.  Since Sony's LCD Screens are basically made by Samsung, they only difference would be the rendering engine, which Sony has some of the best on the market.  They are praised not only for the way the handle HD images, but also for how they are able to render SD images with fewer blocky and jaggy edges.  It is for that reason that I purchased a Sony TV for my first HDTV.  I wasn't able to get the 52 inch XBR2 that i wanted but had to settle with a 55 inch A2000 SXRD projection instead.  I've had it for over 2 years now, and am still very happy with the purchase.  I think it shows a cleaner image then the 37 inch Samsung I purchased this year for the upstairs bedroom.

I swear my 52v3000 is better at rendering sd and some hd better than my xbr6.  Last years V series has to be one of the best LCD's ever produced.  Anyone who says a Vizio is better than a sony or samsung probably thinks 120hrz is amazing and actually works.

Sony's best move till the end of the year is not to go into a price war with Microsoft.

Microsoft has Windows to cover their games division. What does Sony have to fall back on? The only place Blu-Ray is noticeably big is in Japan. Their laptop batteries have been recalled not too long ago. The PSP and PS2 are already used to cover the PS3 as much as possible.

It is best to just keep the PS3 sales steady and that is exactly what they are doing.