Public wants console for gaming, not Blu-ray movies?
According to new figures by research group NPD, Sony's PlayStation 3 has seen a year-on-year decline in sales of 24.5 percent in January. Specifically, last year it sold 269,000 units, whilst this year it's 203,200. The PlayStation Portable suffered a very similar fate with a 25 percent drop, with sales of 101,200 from 264,200 the previous year.
In contrast, Microsoft's console sales grew 25.5 percent (up to 309,000 from 230,000), with Nintendo making an even bigger gain of 59.5 percent (up to 676,000 from 274,000).
According to Philips' Technology Programme Manager, Chris Buma, the PS3 numbers may have a lot to do with its Blu-ray functionality. Indeed, while the system has been important to Blu-ray, he says there's a shift about:
"In the beginning the overwhelming number of players out there meant Blu-ray technology was in a lot of homes, but things are changing now and people are using the console more for its original use – gaming, and not so much for movies."
"This has something to do with price difference. At the beginning, the PS3 was the cheapest Blu-ray player out there but this isn't the case anymore. The PS3's domination as a Blu-ray player is certainly going down and the market place for dedicated players is increasing."
On the topic specifically of Blu-ray movies, Buma says sales are as they expected, and can survive the recession, as prices are dropping.
forums
_thumb.jpg)
Above all, Chris Buma is wrong, Hee Hee, funny name, Buma????? He should go to Burma!!!!!
However, Sony needs to find a strategy to get sales up. A price cut will only increase their losses, and they're very close to cutting profit, so it's down to making the parts cheaper to make, rather than just cutting the price.
If they don't do something, sales won't look up. However, their exclusive 2009 lineup seems like more than enough reason for people to buy this amazing piece of machinery.
What? Buma is from Philips, not Sony!
And Honor; no, they can't drop the price. Unless you want Sony to remain taking losses in their game division, don't ask for a price cut.
http://www.nyleveia.com/2009/01/27/console-wars-my-02/
quite surprising really, but then most gaming journalists are from the U.S.
The original PS3 was $599 when the unit cost was $900 or so, these days the unit price that people focus on is the $399 SKU which runs about $447 to produce by estimation, it would be insane if they still ran a $900 bill per unit and only made half of it back. Just wanted to clear that up since they are getting better about reducing their costs for components.
They seem to be maintaining a decent QC environment so far, honestly it would be poor if they just started killing that in favor of cheaper PCB's and components as blown fuses / capacitors or dead boards are a horrible trade off.