Sony may not be "competitive" in terms of raw available money with Microsoft - they do have many other things that are just as important aswell. One of those things, is the respect of many millions consumers outthere. Their products vary from televisions, hifi equipment onto one of their first and biggest successes, the walkman. On top of that, their PlayStation brand that is a huge success and a powerful gateway that could pave the way for many things to come.
The Cell processor which is a risky venture, of course, may also be the triumph Sony gets over its competitior Microsoft. This processor will allow them to connect their entire consumer electronics, which in turn would make it more attractive for consumers to buy even more sony products (or CELL equiped devices from other brands). If CELL is the success it potentially very well could become, they would definately licence it to other brands which in turn means money again. Basically, a PS3 owner will see the benefits of owning other CELL devices: get a CELL deviced digital video camera and connect it to the PS3. Get a PDA to send digital content to your Sony WEGA or any other Cell equiped device. Heh, have Aibo bark if you have new voice message waiting on your CELL equiped hifi system. Any company will have it hard to compete money wise with Microsoft - not many companies though have the mindshare and brand recognition that Sony does and that can be equally if not even more powerful than just money.
Microsoft, while being a rich company, can't buy its success in everything. It took them several attempts to gain a successful foothold into the PDA market with their Windows CE OS. They dumped billions into Xbox, which as of yet could be considered a failure in terms of money being spent and how it stands against the competition. It might be selling, but if you take a look at the money that's being thrown at it, I'm sure many will agree it's not really funny. I mean, when was the last time you were able to buy a almost newely released console for practically nothing. Not even Dreamcast was this cheap (in Europe) as Sega pulled the plug. Walk into a shop, buy 4 games at their original price and get a free Xbox with it. Now it's 3 games to make it even more attractive. Sony sold their PS2 for over a year at their original launching price, which was at the time considered to be overpriced by many - yet sales were high throughout the year and continues to sell above expectations today. Sony hasn't felt the need to really push PS2 sales as of yet - with little money, it's still selling more than Microsoft's attempt of "buy games and get a free Xbox" strategy. It's insane really. The relevant question is, Sony has money (though not as much as Microsoft), but is it really that relevant? Sony has shown that they can be competitive while spending less, so I think money isn't really an issue here. Besides, once you consider mindshare and the future plans, I think Sony is in a much better position than Microsoft is. Remember, there's a reason why Microsoft jumped in with Xbox, and it's not only because of it being a profitable one. While Microsoft's dominated markets are damned to decrease in terms of profitability, Sony's one is damned to increase. Considering all that, I'd say Sony's future is far brighter than Microsofts - and money doesn't change that one bit. This is not just about PlayStation, it goes much further than that.
