How's this for an idea?

[Platon]

Hmmm, perhaps Sony had better stop producing DVD players that let people watch non-Sony DVDs, as otherwise they buy non-Sony DVDs instead. And they might watch DVDs instead of buying PS2s and playing PS2 games.

If people are going to work, they're going to work. If Sony don't provide a product to enable that, they'll buy someone else's product that does. May as well make money selling profitable hardware (which PS3 will be after a while) to these people, plus fit in a lot of other options that these people will spend money on, like BluRay disc player, downloadable content, and games. You never know, supplying a powerful workstation PS3 might get people buying it as such to use it to play games instead!

Totally different.

Sony makes money on the DVD players they sell, even moreso in the beginning, atleast per unit, while the PS3 will most likely be sold at a loss at least intially and who knows maybe this time around they might have to take losses for longer time in case the xbox360 does really well and they want to stay competitive.

So I don't think their strategy can really built upon them selling the hardware at such a price where they would be making lots and lots of money on the hardware alone, because this time around they might not be able to.

And then wouldn't they have additional costs as they would have to have support for it as a PC as well...

 

[Platon]

You're right Shifty. I think Microsoft should stop allowing 3rd party software to be used on Windows as well...

They would if they could, don't you think that that would be the ideal situation for them, when everyone will have to buy not only the OS from them, but every single program as well? Talk about earning money...

 

[London Geezer]

Oh will you drop it for God's sake...

I guess whatever we tell you, you won't see the good side in anything related to PS3 so why keep going at it over and over?

Just drop it, we get your point, Sony will make bad decisions whatever they do, thank you.

 

[Phil]

They would if they could, don't you think that that would be the ideal situation for them, when everyone will have to buy not only the OS from them, but every single program as well? Talk about earning money...

Platon, no offence please, but I think you either have a narrow perception on how economics work (and what companies will do to achieve their goals in short & long distance) or you're simply to stubborn to allow for a decent conversation on the topic. I'm done with this topic, sorry.

 

[one]

/shrug

Anyway, SCE publishes Cell architecture documents this early before the product launch, which is absolutely unnecessary if they only want users to play games. It may turn out to be the beginning of something Microsoft did with MSDN 15 years ago.

http://cell.scei.co.jp/

 

[Platon]

Isn't this whole thread a speculatory one? About whether it would be a good idea from Sony to sell and market the PS3 as a general purpose PC? To my knowledge Sony has not gone forward with this idea and I am just speculating on why they will most probably not and why it is a bad idea. I would appreciate answers where people look past "this would be cool, I want something like that" kind of thought and try and see if it makes sense out of a bussines point of view...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

For some reason I'm feeling a lot more patient than others here for the time being.

Platon : Adding workstation functionality to the PlayStation (making it a universal station, or TheStation perhaps? UbiStation?) adds lots of options for Sony. I hope you see that. They can sell their own software, get a cut of other people's software and media, sell OS upgrades (PS Linux 2000, XP, Vista...), get people who otherwise wouldn't buy a PS3 to buy one for other features, and end up buying games too (how many people bought a PC for wordprcoessing and email, and have gone on to buy Sims without ever intending to buy games? Or bought a mobile phone for phoning and texting and ended up buying games for it?), and so forth.

Yes, if they sell the hardware at a loss and the people buying it don't buy games, that's bad news for Sony. If the first 20 million PS3 are sold to hardcore computer geeks who use them solely for Linux homebrew and don't buy any games, Sony will be in dire straights. Is that really going to happen though? There's any number of things Sony can do wrong if they add Linux+non-game functionality. There's also lots they can do right. If they make the wrong choices, ouchee. But that's the same with all companies. They've all got to make decisions which could be highly profitable or cost them dearly.

I appreciate your POV that adding OS has it's risks, but that's only half the story. There's also potential for lots to gain which you haven't acknowledged yet and seem convinced nothing good can come of this move (if Sony ever makes it).