I think it was perfect timing

But maybe there will be a slimmer PS3 design down the line

But I'd be surprised if Sony's VERY impressive efforts on hardware revision have completely dried up.

I briefly mentioned the Natal/Sony Wand tech into it, but didn't expand as I didn't want to make this a giant wall of text.

In my view, Natal and Sony's Motion will likely in the end cost the same, or possibly have the Sony Motion being more expensive.  It all depends on Wand pricing and whether you will need more wands to have the full experience.  If for instance you need 8 wands for 4 person games, that could increase costs quite a bit, where as Natal is and all in one purchase that automatically supports up to 4 players.

As far as the slim/revision to the 360, I feel they would likely focus on making it shorter (vertical stand position).  They could shrink the motherboard quite a bit, especially if they merge the chips in the Valhalla revision.  Then all they need to do is for once make a decent cooling system which would be much smaller and cheaper thanks to chip reductions.  This way so long as they keep the actual width the same it always supports all hard drives.  They could also just redesign it in a way that the HDD fits on top or sides or something, but the way I described would be the easiest for cutting costs and maintaining backwards compatibility with peripherals.

@Smashed:  I was not saying this at all.  In fact I said I expect it to repeat it's 2007/2008 performance to even a higher degree.  I am just saying thinking long term past 2010, have Sony lost one of their biggest moves?

I agree.  Just after seeing how cramped everything is inside a PS3 Slim it is hard to imagine it

That is the loosest part of my article. I have no idea if Sony can still remodel things to lower cost, just in my opinion and based on past situations with consoles, they haven't.  With the PSP they have remodeled that thing like 3 or 4 times so maybe the PS3 will follow suit?

@Skeeuk and others:  I agree it was the best decision for this point in time.  I myself can't wait to get one in a few months when I can spare the time/money.  To Skeeuk, from this point on it just seems like manufacturing costs will reduce much slower since they already reached 45nm chips AND shrank the casing and other parts as much as possible at this point.  I mean, it reduced $300 after just 3 years, it had to slow down eventually.

unless they come out with ps3 slimmer....i think the slim was a bit too early...but the price drop...too late...

this is just my opinion and speculation...but i think if they had the price drop first...then waited a bit for release of slim maybe right at the holidays....i think sony would have seen a little bit more sales...not a significant amount...but just good enough amount...

Ps3 diet to Early due to Sony arrogance.

Ps3 was a bad gaming machine but now is finally becoming a great one.

BUT Blu Ray and Wrless Included ar ekilling Sony with Ps3 Price. Microsoft other side was smart to know that Dvd will be here much years so they can go into DVD on Xbox 360 and not losing money with the format unlike sony that lost alot because of Blu Ray... They were also Smart not getting Wirless on 360 so they can sell it separetely and that more Xbox Live Gold Feed is making ALOT of milions/Bilions to Microsoft... Sony isnt makeing any profit with that...

Microsoft = Profit on Xbox Brand since 2007 - Lost Money Since 2001 Now is winning.
Sony = Profit with Ps Brand Till 2006 - Lost money Since Ps3 Launch.

They change the positions xD

I think price cut/slim were a necessity for Sony so thus have come too early this gen. I also think it can shorten the lifespan, as it will be the consumers/retailers who decide how long the product will be in the marketplace NOT the manufacturer and they are not going to accept constant hardware revisions etc.

PS3 was a bad gaming machine? Are you high or something?

I feel this game too late. If sony had launched the console at a more friendly price or cut the price to 300 earlier, i'm sure the console race would be closer than it is now.

I believe he is foreign and doesn't say things correctly.  He is also pretty much only an Xbox supporter so please do not focus on his remarks as I don't want this to become a fanboy war.