Yeah me too. I don't even think it'll get advertised. People will one day walk into shops and see that 60gb PS3s are now 80gb PS3s, with a change of a single digit on the box. The 80gb might be the only sku, maybe even a 500USD sku by year's end.
It looks like the 80GB PS3 is real
- Thread starter iceberg187
- Start date
Yeah me too. I don't even think it'll get advertised. People will one day walk into shops and see that 60gb PS3s are now 80gb PS3s, with a change of a single digit on the box. The 80gb might be the only sku, maybe even a 500USD sku by year's end.
We don't know that. We don't know if they're taking a loss at £400, and on the whole most retailers at still at RRP AFAIK. I'm also sure that most retailers won't be happy to take a loss on the 60 GB model to make room for the 80 GB model. Maybe they'll have to, and it's something they can do without going bust, but it won't please them!
Presumably the introduction of the 80GB model will be handled the same as a price drop on a console. Treat the 60 GB model as price-dropped and handle the existing stock as usual in such cases. I think the price differential would need to be quite large for a bit, and that would suggest a better feature least. Perhaps Linux installed as standard, or something like that to add appeal and get people to buy the more expensive but otherwise virtually identical model. Either that or charge a premium for an extra 20 GB and hope no-one checks online HDD prices!
archangelmorph
Veteran
Perhaps it's Sony's evil plot to drop the price without losing any money...:
Get the retailers to stomach the difference...
They could continue to produce both models forcing retailers to self-subsidize the 60gb SKU and completely bear the burden of the price difference..
yes there was no need for the model at 20% less cost, so it was a fantastic idea to remove it and leave nothing in its place.
im not angry, i think you should leave the console section more often if you think everyone that sees very little sense in a console companies move is "angry".
yes there was no need for the model at 20% less cost, so it was a fantastic idea to remove it and leave nothing in its place.
im not angry, i think you should leave the console section more often if you think everyone that sees very little sense in a console companies move is "angry".
You were planning to buy the 20GB model?
I was, but sadly, it looks like we europeans will never get that option. It's a much better value for the price IMHO.
Seconded.
Gradthrawn
Veteran
Hmmm, seems like an overly complex solution for retailers. Why not just hold onto 80GB models in their warehouses until the 60s have cleared the shelves? When one of their stores is out of 60s, or almost out, ship them the 80s. There's a chance of having empty shelves for short period of time, but that isn't exactly something new, and PS3 isn't exactly in high demand, at the moment. Good management of warehouse shipments and in-store (non-shelf) storage space could make the transition relatively smooth, and without any messy price drops. Smaller chains with out large warehouses or good distribution channels may have a more difficult time of it, and perhaps suffer from empty PS3 shelves a little longer. But nothing traumatic, as it is the slow summer period. Most consumers would be relatively unaware of the transition that way too. They go to buy a PS3 with "the large harddrive" or with "the built in WiFi" and that's exactly what they'll get. That type of transition would also make future HDD SKU changes relatively painless as well.
Gradthrawn
Veteran
You say that like they would even know the difference.
By transparently replacing the 60GB with the 80GB, no, I don't think it would confuse consumers. Especially since there would be only 1 model on store shelves at a time. What's there to get confused about? If its a separate model to run indefinitely along side the 60, which I doubt, it wouldn't add any more confusion than the 20GB did. In fact, even less so. Since the only difference would be HDD size.
Also I think JoePublic understand HDD capacities these days. One SKU will just have more 'memory'. In every other way they're identical, so there's nothing to get confused about. As long as the rest of the system is identical, which in all probability it will be.
Gradthrawn
Veteran
I agree with you there, but, since when does JoePublic read the box?
Are you thinking 2 separate SKUs to run concurrently, or a SKU replacement? I can't say I would be surprised to see them keep both, but it just wouldn't make much sense to me.
Either way, it shouldn't confuse the customers. One SKU means just one choice. 2 SKU's means Joe Public has to pick between the cheaper one and the more expensive one, and knows the only difference is HDD size. Then they only need consider if their budget stretches to the higher capacity and whether they want that or not. There's no complex considerations to worry about. It's not like 'this model has the inbuilt WiFi, but the other one has the HDMI. The former can only accept 2.5" drives but up to 250 GB. The latter can accomodate 3.5" drives as well, but it's 2.5" drive capacity is capped at 80 GB. Rumble only works with model A, though model B will be patched in the next year, and model B can also switch into background tasks on 'standby' mode whereas model A deactivates completely.'