Stay the course but just have one damn model. We have 20, 40, 60, 80, 160. With BC, Without BC. With Memory Card Slots. Without Memory Card Slots. With Wifi. Without Wifi. Seriously, stay the course with ONE model that has PS2 BC in it and advertise the living hell out of it. Price reduce it as fast as economically feasible. The End.

Seriously, Sony is throwing up one model/bundle after another and it is confusing for the average Joe Six Pack.  The cool thing about a single SKU going forward is everyone knows what it is and as long as it isn't stripped, it will put a serious dent in the second hand market as people are going to be less likely to buy a unit if they aren't sure what features it has for sure.

Microsoft seems to be doing just fine with multiple SKUs.

Sony's problem is that they keep changing them what seems to be every fifteen minutes and every one has less features than the model that preceded it.

$600.

That's Sony's core problem. Now that number may be $400, but it's still the same problem when the consumer doesn't see the value.

Again, Sony needs to ride it out. They won Blu-ray. Now, in three years, they'll need to feed a bit of that cash back into the Playstation brand because they fucking killed it for an optical format.

Lol, harsh but true.

On the multiple SKUs from Microsoft.... Yeah, it doesn't seem to be hurting *much* but I can say that several of my gaming friends asked me about the different 360 SKUs over the holiday and which one they should get.  Clearly there is *some* confusion about what each SKU brings but how much it costs MS in lost opportunities from either a purchaser (or developer) is beyond me.

Sony, as you said, changes Sku's too much.  Each one has been an attempt to pull cost down to a reasonable level and this has certainly, in my opinion, created quite a bit more confusion over which sku to buy than Microsoft has.  That's why I belive going to ONE SKU would help clear up an misconception going forward.

They are going to have to live with the price for a while.  The blu-ray added so much cost early on that, as you said, they have put a serious whammy on the PS brand with their trojan horse strategy.  Ride it out... and Hope they can cost reduce enough to make up some serious ground on the back-end of the generation.

GE = General Electric?

They're making tons of cash off the defense contracts, thats why they're so stable lol.

As for Sony, they need better, more and contstant advertising; and better bundles. Fin Q1 - drop price slightly in Japan (co-incide with FFXIII Demo+Advent Children). FQ2 - drop price slightly in EU (release AC+FFXIII demo WW). FQ3 - Drop price $40-$60 WW (GT5, FFXIII (Japan), GoW3). that should help a bit.

Yeah GE is a model of consistency aiming at being top 3 at anything it does and is a very efficient company.  Though its financing arm got caught in the undertow of the financial mess, it consistently beats earnings in its long history without much fanfare (though alot of analysts say it was planned this way)  Sony, however, IMO maybe still sees themselves as an aggressive growth company and doesn't perform as efficiently and strategicly as they should.  Maybe Sony needs a dose of Neutron Jack 

If you think GE is riding on defense contracts alone, you need to delve into the company a little more deeply.

If there's a Big Brother in the world, it's GE.

advertisement shoud help the ps3 a lot,with the price cut its another storie

hmmm...you forgot to add "go bankrupt" in the middle of this world domination plan...seriously how can you expect Sony to invest all this money given its current financial status?

I wouldn't worry too much about Sony's financials. They're rough right now but in the future, they'll come back despite their short-sightedness.

MS, on the other hand, is going to diverisfy and still maintain.

Interesting future, the technology field has.

you know...as the OP was asking for smart moves I just think that leo-j suggestions are a quick way to achieve bankrupt.

I don't see price cut as a viable option right now: stockholders aren't going to be happy if the numbers that we are reading about are to be confirmed in Sony's financial report...and cutting profit isn't a good answer to a (supposedly) bad financial report.

Sony has to build the perception of value for money...a price-war can't be win against the x360 (the x360 will always cost less than the ps3 and as long as multiplat games are released you'll always have hard time to convince people to spend 100+$ more to play the same games), but "value for money" is a field where Sony potentially has no rival (BR player, strong 1st party games, high quality HW etc etc).

making an example i think that reintoroducing backward compatibility (value for money) could produce better results in the medium term than a (little and bloody, given current financial status) price cut done in the wrong period of the year (spring/summer).