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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Achilles @ Jun 11th 2008 10:37AM
What a ridiculous price! It's a Panasonic, not a Pioneer. I've yet to find a complete, current player.
TrentD @ Jun 11th 2008 2:00PM
THIS is a complete, current player. Did you read the article?
The reason that it's so expensive is that they're actually making money off of it. The PS3 is still deeply subsidized by Sony to help drive game adoption. I'm sure if a similar profit structure were applied to the PS3, then the price would be much higher than $700.00.
DrXym @ Jun 11th 2008 2:12PM
The PS3 wouldn't cost $700. That's simply absurd.
TrentD @ Jun 11th 2008 2:49PM
DrXym, you can't just say something is absurd and expect anyone to believe you. I don't think you read what I wrote.
The Panasonic yields profit to:
1) The manufacturer
2) The retailer
The PS3 yields the profit to:
0) No one
The PS3 exists to sell games and movies. Nothing else. That's why it's so cheap.
DrXym @ Jun 11th 2008 5:56PM
Sorry Trent, but you started it by asserting $700. Even when Blu Laser diodes were as rare as hen's teeth, Cell & RSX yields were poor and the PS3 was just rolling off the production, iSuppli guestimated the PS3 cost $805. Since then blue laser diode prices have fallen through the floor and yields of Cell and RSX and other parts have improved substantially. Back in 2006 they were talking of 10-20% initial yields on Cell. If that were now 60% (still a very conservative figure), that means they cost 1/3 what they did, on top of which die sizes are smaller meaning even further savings. And Sony have been aggressively pushing through cost saving measures such as moving from 90nm to 65nm to 45nm meaning more chips per wafer as well as simplifying the internals such as removing BC hardware.
I see no reason to believe the PS3 isn't selling at or very close to break even point already. Especially when Sony have said as much in past statements and independent analysts support those views.
Certainly profits on consoles come from games more than they do hardware, but that doesn't mean any console maker likes selling their hardware for a loss. And they work very hard to ensure that they don't even if they might at the beginning of the console's life time.
As for Panasonic's $700 MSRP. The clue is in the MSRP. It doesn't cost them that much to make, and indeed I expect you'll see those players go for $500 by Christmas with Pansonic still enjoying a profit.
sr1329 @ Jun 18th 2008 6:11PM
So what Panasonic can make premium products also. Just like Sony, the name goes on the crap they sell at Best Buy and on quality products sold at real Sony dealers.