iSuppli cost breakdown of the PS/3

[dialog_gvf]

PlayStation 3 Offers Supercomputer Performance at PC Pricing, iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Reveals


I'm damn curious what they have in that extra $148 that has no details.

Gary

[Bicster]

The $148 accounts for things like circuit boards, passive components, inexpensive active components and so on.

Note that the Blu-Ray drive is estimated to cost $125. That is a little more than I guessed, but still, it frustrates me that I can't buy a read-only Blu-Ray drive for a PC ... it seems like a huge number of the XBOX 360 HD-DVD drives are going to PC users. There is definitely a market for a BD-ROM drive.

[jason]

being that msrp price is 599 with a 11.5% markup from what stores are getting them at, how accurate is that cost breakdown?

[Bicster]

Originally Posted by jason

being that msrp price is 599 with a 11.5% markup from what stores are getting them at, how accurate is that cost breakdown?

I'd guess their cost breakdown is accurate to within 15%, probably much better than that. The breakdown has nothing to do with the wholesale or retail price. They just dismantle the unit and figure out what the parts cost and what it costs to put them all together. I don't think it includes things like the costs of building the assembly lines or product yields.

I did find it strange that they compare the manufacturing cost to the MSRP instead of the average wholesale price, but that is how it's always done.

They show a profit to Microsoft for the XBOX 360, but surely even Microsoft is bleeding money after wholesale margins, advertising, tech support, yields and warranty claims. The money is made on the games and subscription services.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Bicster

The $148 accounts for things like circuit boards, passive components, inexpensive active components and so on.

But, their XBox 360 breakdown has the fully populated 360 motherboard costing only $204. Yet, $148 for misc. parts on the PS/3 makes sense?

And $59 for an I/O Bridge Controller?!

Originally Posted by Bicster

Note that the Blu-Ray drive is estimated to cost $125. That is a little more than I guessed, but still, it frustrates me that I can't buy a read-only Blu-Ray drive for a PC ... it seems like a huge number of the XBOX 360 HD-DVD drives are going to PC users. There is definitely a market for a BD-ROM drive.

At what price? Microsoft/Toshiba are doing another gambit here. They are probably not making much, if anything. Nobody in the BDA is going to be making BD-ROM drives for no profit.

Gary

[Bicster]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

But, their XBox 360 breakdown has the fully populated 360 motherboard costing only $204. Yet, $148 for misc. parts on the PS/3 makes sense?

And $59 for an I/O Bridge Controller?!

That is the system chipset, it does a lot more than the name implies.

At what price? Microsoft/Toshiba are doing another gambit here. They are probably not making much, if anything. Nobody in the BDA is going to be making BD-ROM drives for no profit.

Gary

If they are costing Sony under $125 to make (with extra crap only PS3 needs), It appears they can sell them for $150-200 and make a much higher margin than they do on regular DVD burners.