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Sony cuts PlayStation 3 production cost in half
In a piece primarily focused on Blu-ray over at Business Week, a bit of scrolling led to quite the interesting tidbit: Sony has apparently been able to slash the production cost of its PlayStation 3 in half. More specifically, it was noted that the firm has been able to "shrink the PS3's chips and tweak its design," which aided in getting the cost per machine "to around $400 now, from above $800 just before it went on sale in November 2006." According to Nikko Citigroup's Kota Ezawa, the biggest culprit for such an improvement is the "reduction in the parts count." Still, we wouldn't get our hopes up for yet another price cut just yet, but at least things are moving in the right direction.[Via PS3Fanboy]
*Updated* PS3 and Xbox 360: production cost comparison
The recent announcement of increased production for blu-ray diodes used in the PS3 increased speculation that a price-cut for the PS3 may be coming sooner rather than later. After all, cheaper production costs equate to cheaper overall manufacturing costs and then, a price cut to incite a resurgence in product interest, right? Well, taking a look at the production cost comparison, it seems Sony may need to bring costs down on a few other key areas of their PS3 console before they consider a price-cut. In comparison, a few months after the 360 launched, cost production estimates were similarly expensive (sans built-in wireless and inclusive next-gen DVD drive). Don't worry fans, we'll get our price cut. Eventually.[Via 1P Start]*Update*The data that Digitimes released today was from the November 2006 report that iSuppli released last year. The 360 model in the above chart is NOT the Elite, nor is that the current cost of either console. From GameDaily:"iSuppli public relations manager Jonathan Cassell informed GameDaily BIZ that Digitimes compiled the data from last November's report and erroneously labeled it as May data."[Via GameDaily]
