USA Today ran one of those no-brainer stories today about how people won't, in fact, pay anything for electronics and do have limits for how much they're willing to spend. The story was spurred by last week's announcement by Steve Jobs that he was dropping the price of the iPhone by $200 (Hey, it suckered me into getting one.)
After citing an analyst saying that most consumers will only pay about $400 for a "typical electronic item" the story goes on to list "several recent cutting-edge devices (that) have struggled to find buyers" among them, both the PS3 and Blu-ray players.
•Sony in July lopped $100 from the price of its $599 PlayStation 3 video game system, even though researcher iSuppli estimates it costs more than $800 to make. Sony's move came after being outsold more than 2-to-1 by rival Nintendo's $250 Wii. (Microsoft's Xbox 360, starting at $280, has also outsold PlayStation 3.)
•Blu-ray players were expected to dominate the new market for high-definition DVD, but sales are falling short of expectations, says tech analyst J.P. Gownder with researcher Forrester. The players, made by Philips, Samsung, Sony and others, start at about $450. Players using a rival technology, HD-DVD, start at about $250. Despite Blu-ray's powerful backers, HD-DVD players are outselling it, Gownder says. (Exact numbers aren't in yet.) That's because the average high-definition TV owner only wants to pay about $204 for a DVD player, he says.
Double whammy Sony, ouch.
Kotaku
piracy
