Suggestion for Sony

I think everyone will agree that Sony needs another price drop to attract more buyers. I think there is a way for them to do a price drop and still not lose a whole lot more than they are already losing. Unfortunately it would require replacing the two current skews with new ones.

I think Sony needs greater separation between the "core" and "premium" units if you will. I would suggest a core unit at either $299 or $349 that has no Wi-Fi, no memory card slots, nothing more than the basics and no more than the current 80gb hard drive. 40gb would be better, but that may be considered too big of a step backwards (prehaps).

The "Premium" system could be $449 or perhaps even remain $499(?). It would have the Wifi, card slots and be bundled with an HDMI cable, dvd remote, PS Bluetooth headset and 1 game and 1 blu-ray disc. This would have at minimum the 160gb hard drive, maybe even more.

I think even though the majority of consumers would likely choose the "core" system, a fair number would also go for the "Premium". The Extras that are included with the premium units would not cost Sony $100, so they'd make a little more money on those systems.

They are going to have to drop the price anyway at some point and I think this would help sell a few more higher priced systems.

Myself, I bought the 60gb system at launch mainly for the added features over the 20gb version, namely Wifi. If I were in the market today, I'd likely get the 80gb unit since the only real difference between it and the 160gb system is the hard drive and included game.

Of course this is just one persons opinion.

I agree that Sony has had too many sku changes. So far none of the changes have made much sense (to me). At this point they should either do something like I'm suggesting or they should drop the higher priced sku altogether. Anyway, this is just my opinion, I'm not trying to start a fight or anything.

You may be right. But with Microsoft droping it's price and with stand alone blu-ray players droping below $200, I think there will be pressure for Sony to reduce the price of the PS3 as well. That pressure will likely come from lower hardware sales.

No matter what Sony says publicly, they do not want to lose to Microsoft.

Yes, there are a group of consumers who will purchase the more expensive sku no matter what, but there is an even larger group (most of us) who will buy the higher end sku if it offers true additional value.

Martez,
I didn't say that Sony said anything. I said no matter what they say, they don't want to lose to Microsoft (or anyone for that matter).

Yeah, that was something that kind of bugged me when I got my launch unit. It's not a big deal for me to get the cable from monoprice, but a lot of consumers will simply use the included composite cable and wonder why Blu-ray doesn't look any better than dvd.

Another thing was the lack of any kind of headset. Again, I have a bluetooth headset, but that's not much use if no one else has one. I know more guys have them now-a-days, but back then playing Resistance online and hearing one or two guys out of 40 wasn't as much fun as it could have been.

I'm definetly not suggesting that Sony drop bd playback or the hard drive from their core unit, that would be insane.

Also, I don't think dropping Wifi from their Core unit would save anything and it may even cost them a little as others have suggested, but It would create needed separation from the "Premium" system.

Actually the Premium unit wouldn't need a pack-in game or movie, just the HDMI cable, headset, remote, Wifi and larger drive. I think that would be enough for a lot of consumers to pay the higher price. I know I would.