Sony is handling this situation quite irrationally. They may not be able to lower the price now but they own a lot of software that was made for them by their first party studios. Bundle some games...

They own a movie studio and the bluray format. Bundle some movies for christs sake.

Offer rebates to accessories when games are purchased etc...etc. Then when price cut comes, atleast they wont as much behind.

Lol stop making all of these doom and gloom threads! You're making me depressed!

OT: I think they have to cut the price soon. They need to effectively tighten their belt. Cut out unnecessary features like built in WLAN, start manufacturing PS3s with the 65nm Cell, things like that. DO NOT take out Blu-ray (like they can lol) or HDMI. They might want to release a model with no hard drive as well.

Because they cut the price in 2009 or they let the PS3 die.

They are using 65 nm Cells since more than a year. They could take out the Wlan, but if they take out the hard drive most games wouldn't work! This is something that they can't do.

Cutting now would be too late for this Xmas season, better carefully time the cut.
But this ain't much news, each console, bar Nintendo ones that almost always sell at a profit since the beginning, have this dilemma at least once, XBox360 itself struggled 9 months before doing the right move, and before the awfully expensive PS3 was released, XB360 was the most expensive console commercially available.
Only Wii and DS look immune now.

Edit: @kars:

Including BD and HDD is making them suffer now, but it will pay after, bD already paid something back helping the format win the war, HDD may pay gradually allowing every user, even those buying entry level models, to buy downloadable contents.  BD drives and HDD prices drop quite fast too, so as time goes by, they become more and more an appealing plus with a lower cost.

The bulk of sales occurs at the end of the year. There is no need for them to cut the price early on - it will just cost them more money without much increase in consumer base.

By the time the holidays roll around, they will have further cut production costs, and can use the price cut to spur interest at the time most consoles are sold. It also gives added time for the economy to recover.

 A week with GT5 + Price cut would be godly. Everyone would be like

Customer: "Hey GT5 is out, I loved GT3 and GT4 but shit its an expensive console"

Salesman: "Not anymore young man, the price is now only $299.99"

Customer: "Holy fuck, I'll take it"

PS 3 lifespan will go on as long as Bluray and since digital downloading without a fiber connection is not the consumers choice for HD content which means that PS3' will have a 2-3 year longer lifespan then 360 they don't need to have a firesale just yet.