That wouldn't matter to Sony. That'd hurt the retailers, but by the time the PS3s are on the shelf, Sony has already sold them to the retailer at the normal price. Does that make sense?

Not at all. In these situations they usually compensate the retailer, the most common form is discounts on future shipments.

Sony has a wide and popular portfolio of products and while such a fact allows them quite the leverage to lean against the distributors (with some, let's say, controversial practices in the past) making the distributor swallow their losses it's not gonna happen.

Honestly, I'd say Sony's biggest problem in regards to profitibility isn't the PS3. It's the exchange rate. They may lose money on every PS3 they sell, but Sony earns less money on every single sale of any product in the U.S. or Europe be it hardware, software, or even digitally distributed material as long as the yen stays as appreciated as it is. Unfortunately, there's really nothing Sony can do to change the yen's deflation so they are just going to have to ride it out.

I think Sony has the right idea though. Right now I believe that they are concentrating on selling as many systems as possible so as to establish a market base so that when the exchange rates do inevitably return to normal, Sony will stand to make much more.

i just bought a vaio, they they should have 1000$ more from me next quarter =).

Ouch!

walkman is the 2nd most popular mp3 player brand in Japan, why would Sony want to drop it?

actually have beeen outselling ipod for small amount.

Hmm Sony still at a loss.

I really want to know how long they can keep this business strategy they have with the Playstation family of selling their hardware at a loss to keep the price down, because it seems whatever they make in the last few years is erased completely by the launch of the new system. I don't think they will launch PS4 at a loss, they will at least break even. Not needing a new media system (blu ray, DVD) should keep the cost lower. I don't see a new disc format coming in 2011-2012.

its mostly due to a very strong Japanese Yen. Its killing most foreign manufacturers right now, and no payback from Circuit City's closing.

From what I can guess is that this holiday is what will make Sony this Fiscal Year. They have more products on sale now, e-Books and new MP3 players, at WalMarts and Best Buy. hhgregg is getting a stronger foothold in the US electronics market so they will start making Sony money.

It only does everything...except generate profits.

I wonder what people who said that the slim would make things better for Sony are saying right now?