Saw this article, take with a grain of salt? It sounds completely legit though. Regarding Sony selling its Cell factory to Toshiba.
"Sony dumped its outmoded Nagasaki fab plant on Toshiba, which now only can produce 65nm semiconductors and IBM will manufacture the new state-of-art 45nm Cell processor at its East Fishkill, New York facility for Sony’s latest game machines."
And a semi-related article that shows the New York facility was the one to introduce the 65nm first I believe, to replace the more expensive 90nm.
I think people are forgetting the holiday season, and the fact that parents dont visit this or other gaming sites to know of the price drop and new model coming out.
As we get closer to December, the stores get busier and busier. All systems are going to increase in demand, with or without new games coming out for it. That is why I still think this system has the potential for higher sales this month, and even higher sales next month because of the demand and the lower price.
I dont think October will be too effected by the price drop and new model, but I am sure it will move some more systems in those final days.
Maybe your right, I will sit down after work today and update my prediction. Actually I sold most of my shares yesterday at the high point it was overvalued there, but now it seems a little low to me.
@Just_Ben, The price drop of the 80GB SKU from $599 to $499 will not do a lot, given that there already was a $499 option available since the beginning.
Now the 40GB SKU will increase sales, but 2 days won't give it enough time to increase sales significantly for the October NPD reporting period.
Let's do some math. 119k units divided by 5 weeks is ~24k units sold per week in September. This is a huge drop from the >30k units per week sold in August also given that PS3 had quite a number of big releases for the month.
October is a 4-week reporting period. The previous price drop boosting effect may have dropped altogether already but the price-cut on the 80GB model may boost it a bit. Perhaps 30k units per week?
But there's the new SKU coming out, but it will only enjoy 2 days of the October NPD reporting period. Let's say the PS3 gets a 50% boost on it's weekly rate on the last reporting week of October, that's (3 x 30k) + 45k = 135k units sold. 160k for October is a bit too high.
Re: October Future: Given the 5 Week Sept period was approx 120k I don't see the 4 Week October Future pushing 40k more units ... the lower priced SKU is only availble on Nov 2 so we are still dealing with 60/80gb... The 80GB price drop will help some but 40k more units in 1 less week seems mis priced.
@Gaara42, Another thing that may help sales is Blu-Ray. People that might not otherwise buy a PS3 may be sold into it by a clever salesperson who can speak to the benefits of a PS3 as Blu-Ray player.
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"Sony dumped its outmoded Nagasaki fab plant on Toshiba, which now only can produce 65nm semiconductors and IBM will manufacture the new state-of-art 45nm Cell processor at its East Fishkill, New York facility for Sony’s latest game machines."
And a semi-related article that shows the New York facility was the one to introduce the 65nm first I believe, to replace the more expensive 90nm.