It seems that the reason for Sony to finally pull down the price on their PS3 doesn’t come just from competition Microsoft, but from Samsung, LG and Panasonic. All three companies have recently been taking market share away from Sony in the digital camera, television and camcorder markets. HD is the big game at the moment, and the big three are moving in to supply HD products, and to advertise these like mad leading up to Christmas. LG have been buying up a lot of advertising slots around November in order to encourage mass sales.
All of this seems to have hit Sony hard, and it appears we’ll see Sony counter-act the threat by a price drop across many of their products before Christmas 2009. The news comes from Mark Leathan, Marketing Manager of Samsung’s consumer electronics division, who spoke to Smarthouse about their future electronics market:
We are aware that Sony is looking to slash prices as we talk to the same retailers however we are not worried as we intend to launch extensive marketing activities going into the peak Xmas New Year period.
While it’s clear that Samsung, LG and Panasonic don’t currently pose a threat to the games console side of Sony, it’s notable that one major selling point of the PlayStation 3 is its Blu-Ray drive, which can only mean that Sony will be advertising this factor as it cuts prices. Sony already sell Blu-Ray players individually, but if there is any chance of anyone buying a PS3 for it’s HD disc playing features, then it’ll have to be amongst the oncoming flurry of potentially cheaper players sold by different companies.
Smarthouse mention that a Senior Executive from one of Sony’s major retail partners has confirmed that “In a desperate move to shift stock Sony is set to slash the price of Sony Bravia TV’s, Blu ray players and their Sony Playstation consoles”. Could this tie in with the rumours of a ‘PS3 Slim’ (here and here) to be officially announced later this month? It’s very likely. Then again, it could be the PS2 or the PSP.
Source: Smarthouse via N4G