Playstation 3 "engineering masterpiece" comes at price to Sony

MARKET RESEARCH firm iSuppli said that although the Sony Playstation 3 has been dogged by delays and other SNAFUs, it's an engineering masterpiece.

The firm has pulled the machine apart and Andrew Rassweiler, the "tear down" services manager and senior analyst, said: "You are getting the performance of a super computer at the price of an entry level PC."

The analysis reckons that the combined material and manufacturing cost for the 20GB version is $805.85 and $840.35 for the 60GB version/ That means Sony makes a big loss on each PS3 it sells.

The Xbox 360 has a BOM (bill of materials) of $323.30. "The size of Sony's loss per unit is remarkable, even for the video game console business," said iSuppli.

Rassweiler added: "While many fret over the high cost of the Playstation 3 compared to the competition, iSuppli believes the console provides more processing power and capability than any consumer electronics device in history. Because of this, the Playstation 3 is a great bargain, well worth its $599 price and $840.35 cost." µ

L'INQ
iSuppli