Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer

TOKYO - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites). announced a price
more fitting of a video-game machine than a slick movie-playing gadget for
its new PlayStation Portable - 19,800 yen ($186).

Ken Kutaragi, Executive Deputy President in charge of Sony's game business,
said he thinks consumers will be pleasantly surprised by the price for the
device, which he said may be worth twice as much. But he acknowledged the
Japanese electronics and entertainment giant doesn't expect to turn a profit
on the machine until the fiscal year that starts April 1, 2005.

The PlayStation Portable, or PSP, goes on sale in Japan on Dec. 12. Dates
and prices for the United States and Europe are still undecided, although
overseas sales are being planned for the first quarter of next year. The
PSP is Sony's entry into handheld game machines - an area now dominated by
the Game Boy series from Japanese rival Nintendo (news - web sites) Co.,
which makes Super Mario and Pokemon games.


The PSP, which uses a new disk format, is being billed not only as a game
machine but also as a mobile gadget for watching movies and listening to
music files. But such uses will have to wait. The standard for films was
still under discussion with several movie studios, and a movie lineup and
download services won't be announced for several months, Kutaragi said.

Sony plans to sell 200,000 PSP machines in the initial shipment, 500,000 by
the end of this year, and 1 million by March 31, 2005, in Japan, Kutaragi
said. Analysts have said the price will be key in determining how well the
machine does against Game Boy.

They had expected a price of about 30,000 yen ($280) because of the
machine's sophisticated functions. Nintendo, based in Kyoto, has already
announced that the Nintendo DS, a revamped Game Boy Advance with two
screens, will go on sale for $150 in the United States Nov. 21 and 15,000
yen ($140) in Japan on Dec. 2.

Kazuya Yamamoto, analyst at UFJ Tsubasa Securities Co. in Tokyo, said PSP's
fate depends heavily on the movies and music that will become available.

"Sony put up a good fight by setting a price that's cheaper than expected,"
Yamamoto said. "But everything still depends on how widespread it can become
as a game machine."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Looks like Sony's planning to illegally dump their Sony PSP at 60% belowcost, selling PSP for only $180.Sony can get away with dumping in Japan, but else where this is a differentstory. Sure dumping is tolerated amoung full-sized game consoles, but not inthe handheld computer market! There are already many, many companies in thismarket: Palm, zodiac, Dell, HP,...For Sony to start dumping a handheld computer into this market that isalready established would be a highly illegal and anti-competive move bySony. Sony should not be allowed to get away with this and ruin thecompetiveness of the market with anti-competive monopoly tactics and deeppocket money burning.Zodiac, Palm, Dell, HP, PocketPC, Apple and anybody who makes handheldcomputers or MP3 players should prepare to sue Sony for being monolopistica-holes and trying to take over a market by dumping their product at a 60%loss. It is against the law to sell products at a loss particular when themarket for handhelds is already well established. Dumping products isanti-competive, monopolistic, highly unethical, and highly illegal. Shame onSony.Somebody should put an end to this by filing an injuction against Sonywhenthey launch their product or sue Sony for damages inoccured by dumping. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 186 + 300 = $486 (the true cost of PSP) by: tyrtqgtuk7tit 10/27/04 02:38 pm Msg: 18 of 25 186 + 300 = $486 the true cost of a PSP $486!!!! Tell me what type of PDA can you buy for $486 dollars?? 800 Mhz ARM,bright color screen, fast powerful, maybe even more powerful than a PSP,with the PDA graphics accelerators comming on the market from ATI andNvidia. Now if Sony reaches into their deep monopoly grubbing pockets andstarts dumping PSPs at $186 dollars, losing $300 dollar per console. now tell me what type of PDA can you buy for $186? guess what...youcan't get a PDA anywhere near as powerful as a PSP for that price. that'sbecause PSP is being DUMPED illegally below their production cost. This is going to severally hurt Palm, and PocketPC over time. and Ithink it is illegal to do so. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<Which market are you actually thinking the PSP is going to hurt the PDA in?Games? Come on. Game support is almost all homebrew with a few exceptionssuch as PDAmill. I still don't see how you can compare a PSP to PDA whenthere is NO OS. Are you figuring someone will ditch their PDA as theircalendar because Gran Turismo Mobile is so cool? >don't be stupid. every device needs an OS to load programs off the disk, anddraw images on the screen, etc. Some OS's are more well known than others,such as PalmOS, WindowsCE, Symbiant.And you can bet that sony is going to write PDA software for PSP at a laterdate . But first they need to dump as many PSP onto the market as they canand get the public used to the idea before they do that. Sony can't justcome out any say they want to make PDA software for PSP because it wouldalarm PDA makers.Also, the stylus does not make a PDA! its the software, the screen size, andthe ability to enter text! a PSP is a handheld computer just like a PDA,with a large screen, and a clip on keyboard. The PDA stylus is replacablewith a joystick controlled curser.This is all just software... all thepeices are there.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

"pdaking" <pdaking@noaddress.com> wrote in message
news:wOSfd.7129$LT1.2480@trnddc09...
> By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer
>
> TOKYO - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites). announced a price
> more fitting of a video-game machine than a slick movie-playing gadget for
> its new PlayStation Portable - 19,800 yen ($186).
>
That'll be £400 then.

Si.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

"Si" <si@nospamforme.com> wrote in news:clotd5$gvg$1@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk:

> That'll be £400 then.
>
> Si.
>


and another 100 on top of that once it reaches the other shore. <G>



~S.




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