Sony PlayStation 3 price cut boosts it to #1 seller at Amazon.com


While digging around at Amazon.com(NASDAQ:AMZN) this week, it was interesting to find that the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3 moved up to the top of the list in terms of gaming console sales as of this past Tuesday -- one day after Sony dropped the price on the game console from $599 to $499. Did a $100 drop in price immediately result in Sony's PlayStation 3 pulling ahead of the Nintendo Wii, which has consistently beaten it in sales since both systems were launched in November of last year?

This is interesting, though I don't know the exact specifics on how Amazon.com calculates this type of ranking. By "most popular," does Amazon.com mean most sales? Most looked-at? What? Maybe I am missing something here. Regardless, if a $100 price drop from Sony on the PlayStation 3 can be correlated to almost-instant increased popularity (however that is defined), what is in store for the Nintendo(NASDAQ:NTDOY) Wii's sales? How about Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 sales?

It's hard to see how Sony is making any profit (read: losing its shirt) by selling technology that costs over $600 for now less than $500 (similar to Microsoft's profitless Xbox 360), but if it is betting on engaging consumers with a lower price, maybe future volume shipments will give it some breathing room as it tries to sell more consoles. Both Nintendo and Microsoft have a pretty substantial lead on unit shipments over Sony so far, and price cuts generally are reflective of a degree of desperation when they happen. In Sony's case, I think this is very true.

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