isuppli is reporting that PlayStation 3 manufacturing costs have almost halved since the machine’s launch in November 2006.
Initial launch day consoles allegedly costs Sony a whopping USD 840 to produce, which were then sold for USD 599. Following a series of hardware revisions – including the loss of PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility and a few USB ports – this number has now dropped to USD 440, with the company now selling the system for USD 399.
What does this mean for Sony, exactly? Well, they’re no longer losing a staggering USD 240 per unit sold, with losses now totalling just USD 40 – a substantial difference by anyone’s standards.
isupplyi analyst Andrew Rassweiler commented: “Sony is one step ahead of us and probably has plans to re-spin the hardware to reduce the costs yet again,” further adding that he feels the platform holder may break-even in 2009.
Here’s to a profitable New Year for Sony.