In rural areas you will find houses that are more like cabins that are dilapidated. They will have a shinny DirecTV dish on the roof though. I repair windows for a living and have seen how people live in their own home. In urban “ghetto” areas people live in conditions you couldn’t even understand. The electricity has been cut off by the utility so they “hack” it back on with coat hangers so their kids can still play console games. Its depressing I know but don’t think Sony doesn’t play to this.

It is my understanding that other parts of the world don’t have the same problems with the poor. In the US we give the poor money left and right… only to see them buy a ps3 or wii. We give them food coupons they trade for cash at .50 on the dollar. I am cynical no doubt but if you have seen what I have seen you would understand.

A company as large as Sony is not as stupid as you think. It’s easy for us to say they should have done x or “look at betamax”. Did everyone forget that betamax was supperior technology over VHS? It’s not cut and dry and the market is fickle. Sony and everyone else is going to find out that over the next 3 years almost nobody is going to be buying blueray or hd-dvd movies. The first crop of HDTV sets are either dying to bad pixels or 4:3 box shade or the lack of an hdmi input. Sure the rich will upgrade but the middle of the line market will not stand for such things. We buy a Tv that we expect to watch until it blows up and that had better be 10 years AT LEAST from today.

Give it time… Tax season is happening right now in the US. Most people get a big refund especially the poor and middle income earners. You will see sales go WAY up over the next 3-4 months.

Why jump over all Sony, it’s not only Sony but MS & Nintendo & others as well are charging different prices in different parts of the World.

I have a PS3 & I Love it, I am using it to post this comment from the comfort of my living room chair. I think it’s cool that you can do so many other things with it when you are tired of playing games, I have my music, photos, demos, videos & games stored on it, also I can watch HD Movies with the included Blue Ray Player.

You say “I think 360 & Wii are much better consoles” well bully for you, but that doesn’t make it so, quite the contrary anyone who has used the PS3 comments on the excellent quality of the machine, not so with the 360 or the Wii for that matter. There’s Not alot of Games yet but a whole slew of games are on the way this year.

The PS3 is an excellent bargain when you consider the quality, all it does & everything that comes with it.

You say “I’m saying this from a past fanboy experience” Well that probably explains everything.

PS3 is not exactly that much of an exciting console than its predecessor, not worth for us to die for. I think 360 and Wii are much better consoles, not built around some HD-DVD wars and the stupid CELL.

Sony has dropped the ball GREATLY. And im saying this from a past fanboy experience.

Some are assembled in China by ASUS (Suzhou). Most are assembled by Sony in Japan. Chips are produced in in East Fishkill NY (IBM@90nm), Oita Japan (Toshiba@90nm) and Nagasaki I/II Japan (Sony @90nm). Blue-laser diodes are done by Sony Shiroishi semiconductor in Japan. Only the Samsung memory and off the shelf IC’s for various functions come from outside of Japan.

As always, nice shock figures. Speaking from the UK, though, might I suggest the following:

1) Take into account the fact that 17.5% tax is included in the UK price, and no tax is included in the US price (the tax level is lower there, of course, but I hardly think you can blame Sony for that).

2) Compare the prices to other hardware. Are Sony aware of the 360 and Wii? I guess so, because the percentage markup on the PS3 over those consoles is almost identical between the US and UK markets.

And it’s not just consoles, either. A little online research (you can do it instead of the frothing at the mouth before posting – I find it’s good to do some fact checking before posting, as it can often change an open mind) will show you that the price markup on PS3, Wii and 360 is extremely similar to that on pretty much all consumer electronics over here.

So, perhaps what you’re actually looking at is the great consumer electronics swindle. Which, while I can’t speak for other countries, we’ve known about for decades in the UK.