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PS3 Hard Disk Sold Separately
Sony to lose $100 on every PS3?IGN said:Sony to keep hard disk separate from main system, according to magazine.
by Anoop Gantayat
June 30, 2005 - A recent issue of Famitsu contains confirmation that the PS3 will ship with a slot for a hard drive, but no actual hard drive included. The magazine has a feature in which all facets of the next generation systems are presented for the non-technically inclined (this is done through some hilarious cartoon drawings -- pick up issue 864 to see for yourself!). As part of a section detailing the hard disk functionality of the systems, the magazine states that, while Xbox 360 will ship with a 20 gigabyte hard disk included out of the box, the PS3 hard disk will be sold separately from the main system.
Sony Computer Entertainment has been hinting at this approach for some time now, but hasn't specifically stated its intentions one way or the other. In a recent interview with Nikkei Electronics, a bi-weekly electronics magazine in Japan, SCE president Ken Kutaragi hinted that we could expect an 80 gigabyte size for the PS3 hard disk. Given the added cost of such a large hard disk, Kutaragi's comments seemed to all but confirm that the device would be sold separately.
The question now turns to the cost of the hard disk peripheral. In Japan, Sony currently sells the PlayStation BB unit, which bundles a network adapter and 40 gigabyte hard disk together, for 12,800 yen.
Famitsu is a Japanese magazine, of course, so this confirmation applies only to the Japanese market. We'll have to wait for comment from Sony Computer Entertainment America on the possible stateside inclusion of a mass storage device with the PS3
Thoughts, opinions, beefs?Big Tech said:The manufacturing cost of a single Playstation 3 could be as high as US$490 despite an expected retail price of US$399 when it hits the shops in 2006, according to financial analysts Merrill Lynch Japan. The hundred dollar subsidy would cause Sony to lose more than US$1 billion on hardware sales in the first 12 months - a pill tough to swallow even for the mighty consumer electronics giant.
Beancounters at Merrill Lynch Japan estimate that the first US$100 is absorbed by the Cell processor, the NVIDIA-designed RSX graphics chip and Blu-Ray optical drive alone. Factor in the cost of other components, case and final assembly and the final cost price balloons to 54,000 yen (£271 / US$490).
Launching after the introduction of Xbox 360 means there is little chance Sony would risk pricing PS3 at the breakeven £299 / $499 level; Merrill Lynch reckon Microsoft will sell Xbox 360 for US$299, forcing Sony to position themselves at US$399. Working on estimated first year sales of some 14 million units worldwide, the report suggests Sony would bend over to the tune of more than 130 billion yen (£652m / US$1.18 billion).
(article continues if interested http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/06/29/sony_ps3_loss/)