Were the Gamecube and Mega Drive successors of two 240 million (combines of course) selling consoles? No......

Ps3 will be in second in the end due to longer life cycle!

So when does this fantastic brand name power kick into effect?

Good for you.

When the price decreases, brand power does not make people retarded and of course lets not forget the fantastic situation the economy is in right now.

I'm an unbiased fan of all 3 consoles, but I don't think that this is Sony's generation.  It is bar none the best piece of hardware this generation, but XBOX Live, the exclusives thus far, and price is just too much for Sony to overcome. 

I originally bought my 360 because it came out first, and my friends list on Live transferred over... but XBOX Live is just dominating the PSN.

I honest to god prefer my PS3 because of hardware stability, quiteness, beauty, the longer lifespan, the absolutely best-in-class Blu-ray player, and most important for me, the Sixaxis controller is my favorite... but XBOX Live is just so addicting that I can't seem to get enough of it.  MS also really pulled off a coup d'etat with the Netflix feature.  It really is as cool as it gets.

Sony's redemption is in making the PSN more user friendly and better features and finding a way to drop the price to $250-299 on the starter console.

And yes, I defintely agree that the current $399 price is a bargain.. but the general public doesn't seem to care that you get more for $399 PS3 than a $199 Xbox 360 Arcade.  The bottom line is that you can dip your feet in the world of Xbox for $200 and to do the same with Sony, you gotta drop twice as much cash.

On top of this, please don't argue with me that the Xbox 360 cost more in the long run, because I already know this to be true... but the general public doesn't care about the longterm.  If they did, we wouldn't be a credit card society.  People don't save up a grand to buy something, they just charge it... instant gratification.  People want what they want right now, and the long term costs/consequences don't generally register with folks.

@RPG

Oh no! Not the "just you wait" argument again...

The OP's point is much OK. Just have peace with the PS3 likely to get 3rd place most of it's lifetime. Now, if the PS3 ever gets 2nd place, then he's happier. If not, then at least he can concentrate on the great games for his 3rd place machine, instead of lamenting and whining most of the time.

The competition can also lower prices in order to keep the price advantage. At what point do people become crazy about the PS3 because it got a price cut?

I wouldn't count the PS3 out of 2nd right yet. However, if the current trend oontinues and we don't see any major moment changers, like a price drop, 360 exclusives going multiplatform, new exclusives/IPs, it's going to be hard for the PS3 to start clawing away at the 360 marketshare.

As for the "10 year plan", that doesn't really count. It's like running a marathon based on how far you run. If the other competitors have pulled out 2, 3 even 4 years before you and you still manage to get ahead of them, that's not really winning now is it? :P

its only 2 years old................ give it time. compulsive ideas of the sort leads to bad things. like your drunk friend taking home the fat chick