Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox

I think there are a number of folks who will buy a PlayStation 4 and a number of folks who will buy a Xbox One, and nothing announced for now on will change that. Everybody in-between is still in the fight for both Microsoft and Sony.

True, though the Xbox's pre-orders are rather sluggish compared to the xbox 360's. so times are changing because of customer's input whether it's based on the hardcore or not.

Sorry, I didn't follow this. You could argue that any product that is selling out and is in demand is good but the difference, for example between the Wii and PlayStation 3, is that Nintendo had no production issues and still couldn't make enough consoles to satisfy world demand for over 12 months and Sony, couldn't make enough consoles, due to blue die laser production issues, despite lacklustre demand. Big difference.

I'm not too much into marketing strategies but there are a number of ways sales can be effected or even manipulated for demand, (like the Iphone). you're right that the Wii had it's own problems too; but that only was because the actual demand was really high. In which case production was still at fault but not by Nintendo choice.

In microsoft's case (being the most expensive console.) i can see shipping with small numbers based on a couple reasons, from factory testing to available time left for mass production. It's obvious Microsoft is behind on schedule going by their beta kits used, to DF's article on Esram.

So Microsoft might stumble on shipped units regardless and may also take advantage of that through hyping it, till they can respond effectively in the mean time. It would be similar to the ps3 and I do remember the hype still being pretty big over where i was at. (in the US)
 
Amazon sold out of XB1 "launch day" edition finally.

So now it's like PS4, you can pre order but no guarantee of when you will get it.

PS4 launch edition ended up 3rd for 2013 Amazon sales, XB1 launch edition 6th.
 
Amazon sold out of XB1 "launch day" edition finally.

So now it's like PS4, you can pre order but no guarantee of when you will get it.

PS4 launch edition ended up 3rd for 2013 Amazon sales, XB1 launch edition 6th.

Considering one product is more expensive than the other, it could have been far worse. And again, since you will unlikely be able to walk into a store and buy any console until Spring, they've basically both sold the same amount for now. That gives Microsoft another E3 to change people's mind about the Xbox One, as well as pull out Halo 5, drop live playable demo in their E3 keynote, then watch all the money flow in.
 
I've said before but I will say it again... People who ordred ps4s late in the game will be upset when they are told they wont be getting it on launch day. I know gamestop overbooked for what they consider launch day avalibility and the response the RMs and DMS are getting is to just deal with it when the time comes.
 
Considering one product is more expensive than the other, it could have been far worse. And again, since you will unlikely be able to walk into a store and buy any console until Spring, they've basically both sold the same amount for now.

That makes no sense. There is no reason to believe the "launch allotments" for both consoles are identical. In fact we have a good amount of evidence suggesting there were far more PS4 presales available than Xbox One, including that Amazon best seller list. A difference between 3rd and 6th in a retail list like that can actually be enormous.
 
I've said before but I will say it again... People who ordred ps4s late in the game will be upset when they are told they wont be getting it on launch day. I know gamestop overbooked for what they consider launch day avalibility and the response the RMs and DMS are getting is to just deal with it when the time comes.

Did GS have a different policy for XB1 preorders? Why would PS4 be over sold and XB1 preorders not be in similar jeopardy? Serious question; common sense says both would be oversold if GS policy was simply to accept orders or that pre-orders would have been taken based off GS expected allotment of launch systems. So what your saying implies Sony is misrepresenting the number of units which are going to be available at launch or GS as a matter of internal policy decided to oversell their actual allotment which again raises the question why would they have a different policy for PS4 than XB1.

On a related note we've heard rumors of yield issues as well as possible last minute updates to XB1 specs, wouldn't either of those potentially negatively impact the number of units available at launch? I ask because PS4 specs appear to be tied down and Sony has a very good idea what their demand will be at launch and if need be they can push up the actual manufacturing to accommodate demand if it is greater than they predicted where as MS might possibly still be finalizing their design.
 
True, though the Xbox's pre-orders are rather sluggish compared to the xbox 360's. so times are changing because of customer's input whether it's based on the hardcore or not.
Given the negativity and last minute changing of policies, which have got very little coverage in mainstream (non-gaming) media, I'm not surprised. Lots of people may not even know the original DRM policies have been scrapped.

I'm not too much into marketing strategies but there are a number of ways sales can be effected or even manipulated for demand, (like the Iphone). you're right that the Wii had it's own problems too; but that only was because the actual demand was really high. In which case production was still at fault but not by Nintendo choice.
It's difficult to manipulate sales, unless the company send folks out to retail to buy products on shelves. Unlikely. Sales will be made when there is an actual demand. You can inflate perceived demand by channel stuffing but that's shipments, not sales. And if one of the consoles sells badly, you can't get away with "we're sold out" because too many places report actual sales figures.

In microsoft's case (being the most expensive console.) i can see shipping with small numbers based on a couple reasons, from factory testing to available time left for mass production. It's obvious Microsoft is behind on schedule going by their beta kits used, to DF's article on Esram.
I believe that Microsoft are behind on software tools, bkillian has said as much, but production? I've not seen any tangible evidence of that. It depends what their component supply chain is, how many consoles they can produce a week and the target number units they want available at launch. I personally do not believe any of these last minute spec change rumours, I think Microsoft are likely already in production or about to go into full production.

So Microsoft might stumble on shipped units regardless and may also take advantage of that through hyping it, till they can respond effectively in the mean time. It would be similar to the ps3 and I do remember the hype still being pretty big over where i was at. (in the US)
It's difficult to hype or spin this because too many retails channels report actual sales figures. If, whatever reason, the PlayStation 4 is outselling the Xbox One, that's bad for Microsoft.

I've said before but I will say it again... People who ordred ps4s late in the game will be upset when they are told they wont be getting it on launch day. I know gamestop overbooked for what they consider launch day avalibility and the response the RMs and DMS are getting is to just deal with it when the time comes.

Yup. It depends on who and how your ordered. If you've secure a 'Day One Edition' or placed a deposit, which you stand to lose, you're likely fine and within that stores allocated stock. But places like Amazon, who require no deposit, will know that lots of people who preorder later cancel so they'll certainly be allowing more launch pre-oders than they anticipate having launch stock for. There are likely less cancellations for paid deposit orders.
 
They've discussed Kinect as an advanced Video Conferencing system before, and it's not that far-fetched. Proper video conferencing systems can be really expensive, and Kinect is one that should be able to focus on the speaker and isolate his voice better than most.

In fact, this pitch confirms that WinRT will be featured on the console, meaning that Office RT will be available on the system, so that you can in fact control your Powerpoint with hand, voice and smartglass at the same time.

"With SkyDrive via Internet Explorer, you can use it with the Office Web Apps to open that Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint," he said. "Use the Kinect voice and hand gestures to navigate to websites. Now you're free of clickers and light pens to use your hands to for more expressive gestures."
 
It's difficult to hype or spin this because too many retails channels report actual sales figures. If, whatever reason, the PlayStation 4 is outselling the Xbox One, that's bad for Microsoft.

I still think it gets back to 499 is MS main problem. Even over DRM.

It's just a lot, and predictably enough, so far Kinect isn't driving people for that extra $100.

But I still think there's a whole lot of story to tell here, and the Kinect gamble may well pay off in the long term. My theory is the pre-orders now are the core minority, than once it's sitting on Wal Mart shelves Kinect might be more of a driver.

But, we do have a sample of concrete results, and so far it isn't.

I mean I look at Wii, didn't it sell/preorder great from the outset? Even though it was casual oriented. It seems to me like it did.

But yes, $399 is such a massively better price point than 499. Considering inflation, it's probably the old $200 magic line people used to think existed for consoles.

Just in my own mind, 399 seems like "disposable purchase" and 499 seems like "wow, that's a lot of money, half a thousand". Even if the actual difference is only 25%.
 
If the Kinect is going to be a game changer, it will be because of the X1, not because of the PC version that they're going to sell for $400?

Ludicrous price, since you can buy whole PCs, consoles (most of the X1). And PC sales are dropping right now, 5 consecutive quarters so far.
 
MS pitch XB1 to small businesses. It's a pretty silly proposition (especially considering Kinect is coming to PC). £430 for a console instead of a laptop for video chat? Every laptop can connect to most TVs without additional hardware.

Though I doubt that this will take off...the idea that a laptop is the equivalent of a full on polycomm system or even one of Ciscos setups is...:???:

The last polycomm system we purchased was multiple thousands of United States Dollars...and we're supposed to be one of the more intelligent boards!
 
They've discussed Kinect as an advanced Video Conferencing system before, and it's not that far-fetched. Proper video conferencing systems can be really expensive, and Kinect is one that should be able to focus on the speaker and isolate his voice better than most.

In fact, this pitch confirms that WinRT will be featured on the console, meaning that Office RT will be available on the system, so that you can in fact control your Powerpoint with hand, voice and smartglass at the same time.

You're not going to see Office on the Xbox (one step too far). You ARE likely to see Miracast support which will let you mirror your desktop screen onto the Xbox One connected to a display for presentations. That does make sense.

People may think "Oh but why would a business buy a game box" when a) consoles haven't been about pure games for a long time b) video conferencing equipment is expensive and c) maybe we can finally ditch needing a VGA cable to do a presentation!
 
You're not going to see Office on the Xbox (one step too far). You ARE likely to see Miracast support which will let you mirror your desktop screen onto the Xbox One connected to a display for presentations. That does make sense.

People may think "Oh but why would a business buy a game box" when a) consoles haven't been about pure games for a long time b) video conferencing equipment is expensive and c) maybe we can finally ditch needing a VGA cable to do a presentation!

Once Xbox runs WinRZt, why would you then limit Apps? I'm actually ready to believe that the Win8 programming courses have been delayed to include best practices for 8.1 and who knows also Xbox One support.
 
You're not going to see Office on the Xbox (one step too far).

Why a step too far ? For Microsoft's hardware partners ? I could easily see an XBox Live 365 version of Office maybe even something like an iLife suite with kinect enabled versions of Movie Maker and the like.
 
Once Xbox runs WinRZt, why would you then limit Apps? I'm actually ready to believe that the Win8 programming courses have been delayed to include best practices for 8.1 and who knows also Xbox One support.

The APIs are similar, they are not the exact same, it is not running Windows RT (that's ARM) or Windows 8, but the same kernel. Besides, I'm not talking about limiting apps, just what the best use case scenario for the Xbox One is. Actually having an Office app on the Xbox means you need to deal with input issues.
 
The APIs are similar, they are not the exact same, it is not running Windows RT (that's ARM) or Windows 8, but the same kernel. Besides, I'm not talking about limiting apps, just what the best use case scenario for the Xbox One is. Actually having an Office app on the Xbox means you need to deal with input issues.

So? Whether you use touch, or a mouse, or kinect with a visible pointer you guide with your hand, at that point Kinect 2.0 should be fairly easy to support.
 
Why a step too far ? For Microsoft's hardware partners ? I could easily see an XBox Live 365 version of Office maybe even something like an iLife suite with kinect enabled versions of Movie Maker and the like.

The APIs are similar, they are not the same. It's not write once, run anywhere like Windows 8 and Windows RT. more like Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, code is shared, binary executables are not.

Besides, like I said before, it's far easier for the Office team to just mirror your screen to an Xbox One (zero work) than to have to deal with making a separate SKU of Office.
 
So? Whether you use touch, or a mouse, or kinect with a visible pointer you guide with your hand, at that point Kinect 2.0 should be fairly easy to support.

"Should be easy to support" the phrase every project manager says to an engineer which they absolutely dread. No, it's not that easy to support. Like people saying "Why isn't there Metro Office already, shouldn't that be failure easy to port?"
 
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