BDA..Sony..Anybody - Lower your prices

[BigB88]

The BDA or Sony of someone needs to lower their player prices, even a little would help. I think Sony has already done their part with the 40GB PS3. Come on Samsung, Pioneer, Phillips, et al !!! Pony up.

http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com...dvd-price-war/

[Maxell]

It could be done. How can the PS3 be $400 when a PS3 costs more to make than a standalone?

[BigB88]

Originally Posted by Maxell

It could be done. How can the PS3 be $400 when a PS3 costs more to make than a standalone?

Completely agree. I can't understand why they can't get their prices just a little lower. I'm not asking for piece or sh*t Toshi$a sub $200 pricing, their product is obviously inferior, I'm just asking they get to like a sub $325 or sub $300 level with a couple of stand-alone players, at least do this over this critical holiday period... at a minimum.

[WickyWoo]

It could be done. How can the PS3 be $400 when a PS3 costs more to make than a standalone

Because this is standard in the game business

Sony makes $10 a game, and large percentages of online content downloads regardless who whose game you buy

They make at best a nickle for every Blu

Hardware makers for Blu, HD and DVD see nothing outside of the patents they own, which can end up being fractions of a cent per disc. If they don't make their profit on the deck, they don't make much at all.

[Leopold BUTTERS]

Originally Posted by Maxell

It could be done. How can the PS3 be $400 when a PS3 costs more to make than a standalone?

easily, get tons of them out there, so people buy millions of copies of each game, make the money back in the games divison. lose 100,000,000 on the ps3 gain 1,000,000,000 when MGS4 comes out and 10 million poeple buy it, or when 10million people buy Killzone 2, that many people won't buy 1 movie.

[quetzalcoatl]

Originally Posted by Maxell

It could be done. How can the PS3 be $400 when a PS3 costs more to make than a standalone?

It is because the PS3 is being sold at a loss as are all gaming systems. Most CE's donot sell other things at a loss. You say this yet Sony's only Blu-ray stand alones are among the most expensive on the market. Bottom line we might think it is needed but our own insider for Sony disagrees.

[raggarichie]

I believe they will, once the new models come out, they'll have no chocie but to lower the ones out right now. The BDP-S300 is going for $399 on some online retailers website.

The more HD-DVD cut there price without gaining any ground is the more headroom the BDA have to play with. The minute it seems like those 199 HDDVD players are selling I believe, the BDA will shave off $100-$150 off one of there players.

[Maxell]

This is where Sony and Toshiba are different. Toshiba is willing to drop prices while Sony is hesitant. Sony is rarely ever budget product. Just look at the other products Toshiba ans Sony are in competition on. The Toshiba's are always cheaper in price and their closeout products go even cheaper.

[blu2]

I'm sure the BDA vendors are watching things carefully and will make moves if/when they see fit.

We know that Blu Ray standalones outsold HD DVD standalones over the summer, and it's likely they are closely watching current share between HD DVD and Blu Ray standalones, and will making pricing moves only when necessary: Blu Ray is trying to make some money off standalone sales, unlike Toshiba.

I imagine they want to keep the share roughly split at this point from a standalone perspective, and wait until HD DVD runs out of pricing room.

We just don't have any market data to know what the current story is.

[bmr76]

I believe sony and the bda are confident they can hold off dud this holiday season with the ps3 40gb and better movies. Then in 08, they will start to release the funai blu players at the lower price points. Sony and other top tier ce's can lower their standalones at slower pace so they dont kill the PROFIT MARGIN. Toshiba said they will always undercut sony, they lose so much money on the a2 and a3 its a joke. As the 08 year goes on they will put the nail in duds coffin with wb going blu exclusive and hardware by next year could be half of what it is this year from hardware being mass produced and efficiency up. Just my prediction. Price cuts this holiday will be in the 100-125 range, retailers pay 350 for the sammy, sharp and sony entry blu players. 299 would be a loss for the retailer.

[BigB88]

Originally Posted by bmr76

I believe sony and the bda are confident they can hold off dud this holiday season with the ps3 40gb and better movies. Then in 08, they will start to release the funai blu players at the lower price points. Sony and other top tier ce's can lower their standalones at slower pace so they dont kill the PROFIT MARGIN. Toshiba said they will always undercut sony, they lose so much money on the a2 and a3 its a joke. As the 08 year goes on they will put the nail in duds coffin with wb going blu exclusive and hardware by next year could be half of what it is this year from hardware being mass produced and efficiency up. Just my prediction. Price cuts this holiday will be in the 100-125 range, retailers pay 350 for the sammy, sharp and sony entry blu players. 299 would be a loss for the retailer.

Okay, I agree with the points made about the PS3 selling at a lost because Sony & others make all their cash on the games. I also agree Toshiba will cut their prices to the bone to be lower then Sony or any other BD player. My assertion is not to have a sub $200 BD player or even a sub $250 BD player. If the retailers are paying $350 for some of these units, then the CE manufacturers need to charge $250, so the retailers can sell these units at $299 or $325. This is still not the $169 or $199 level of the inferior 1080i Toshiba players, but at least we can say we are in the ballpark. Keeping prices at $399, $499, and up is simply cutting your own throat and leaving Blu outside with no ticket to get into the main event. They won't have the leisure of waiting until '08. Toshiba will have flooded the market with cheapass players and then the Studios will look at this and say, "WE CAN SELL MORE ON HD-DVD because MORE PLAYERS ARE OUT THERE". The BDA, Sony, Panasonic, etc. can't afford this. This will eventaully be a multi-billion dollar business, spending some millions now is peanuts compared to what can be gained and what can be lost. This is the Toshiba/M$ strategy and it will only work if the BD CE manufacturers and the studios and the BDA are all naive enough or arrogant enough to believe that superior technology is and will be the only factor in winning this war.

[bmr76]

sony or anyone could lower their cost to retailers at anytime. I remember when dud went from 399.99 to 299.99, toshiba lowered our cost, even waited for stock to be depleted, then when we re ordered they lowered our cost. I would love for sony or someone to say thats it "299.99", I think that would be a great price point.

[Maxell]

When is that Funai player due? I'm sure it will probably be disguised as Insignia and sold at Best Buy at a lower price

[TauRus]

Originally Posted by BigB88

The BDA or Sony of someone needs to lower their player prices, even a little would help. I think Sony has already done their part with the 40GB PS3. Come on Samsung, Pioneer, Phillips, et al !!! Pony up.

http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com...dvd-price-war/

No, I think the pricing on Blu-Ray players is where it should be at the moment. If they start dropping the prices too early they will repeat Toshiba's most serious mistake - they will erode any incentive in manufacturing the Blu-ray players. Do not worry about the Toshiba promotion - this is a stock liquidation campaign for Toshiba. Even if they give their player at no charge this is not going to help them at all. Too little too late. Their cheap price policy has failed and Toshiba products are going the way of dodo.

[Maxell]

Originally Posted by TauRus

No, I think the pricing on Blu-Ray players is where it should be at the moment. If they start dropping the prices too early they will repeat Toshiba's most serious mistake - they will erode any incentive in manufacturing the Blu-ray players. Do not worry about the Toshiba promotion - this is a stock liquidation campaign for Toshiba. Even if they give their player at no charge this is not going to help them at all. Too little too late. Their cheap price policy has failed and Toshiba products are going the way of dodo.

I agree to that. Maybe that's a huge reason why other companies dont bother to make hddvd standalones. It's either blu-ray or combo to keep those margins up.

[davidPS3]

Any while they are at it, the others need to fix their movie load times. The PS3 always loads right up while stand alones can take forever.

[Pilam69]

Reuters reports that "Operating loss at its game unit, which offers loss-making PlayStation 3 game gear, is estimated to exceed 100 billion yen ($876 million) for the current business year, compared with its original projection of 50 billion yen, a Sony spokeswoman said."

[ArkGuy]

The Panny model 30 will be 1.1 compliant. The speculation is that perhaps the PS3 will be upgraded to such sometime before the end of the year. Perhaps the Sammy 2400 will be resurected as their competing 1.1 entry.

If/when that happens, all of a sudden the existing 1st and 2nd gen BR players whihc cannot be made 1.1 with firmware upgrades become instant canditates for reduced price, entry level BR players. Price incentives to dealers and/or rebates to consumers could make those players $350 boxes in pretty short order.

As momentum increases, the projected production efficienies mentioned by several posters will bring the price down on all BR players.

[devonthedude]

Originally Posted by Maxell

It could be done. How can the PS3 be $400 when a PS3 costs more to make than a standalone?

That's because SCE is taking huge losses on the ps3 and making profit on the stand alone's. Sony may be doing this to get more hold on the gaming market with potential new markets (people who traditionally don't play games) buying the PS3 just because it's cheaper blu-ray player. Those potential untapped markets could buy into the playstation library say if someone's nephew came over (thats potentially millions in profits from these "sleeper markets"). My father has thought about buying a PS3 as opposed to a standalone because it also plays his pictures and he could browse the internet on the couch, cant do that with a stand alone. Plus the PS3 is near future proof, heck it supports profile 1.2 and beyond. Why buy a player that's gonna be out-dated especially as 1.1 creeps up this week. By the way there is no profit margin on the PS3 for retailers, they make it up in game sales, the stand alones make retailers good profits.

[devonthedude]

Originally Posted by Pilam69

Reuters reports that "Operating loss at its game unit, which offers loss-making PlayStation 3 game gear, is estimated to exceed 100 billion yen ($876 million) for the current business year, compared with its original projection of 50 billion yen, a Sony spokeswoman said."

Sony lost millions on the PS2 when it came out, it also sold less consoles than the PS3 did in year one. No need to panic at all for Sony. Plus if blu-ray wins the ps3 will win down the line.