Sony has a lot of devices on the electronics market, but a very profitable one is its
PlayStation Portable handheld console, which not only plays games made for it, but is also quite a reputed media player that has reached sales of over 50 million units across the world.
Now, with the brand new
PSP Go!, the Japanese company hopes to directly compete with Apple's iPod Touch, which is, first, a media player and, then, a game console. As it was unveiled at E3, Sony announced that the standard price would be of $249 US dollars, which is $80 more than the current PSP-3000 model that will continue to be sold right next to the new device.
This has made Wedbush Morgan Securities' Analyst Michael Pachter quite upset, as he has declared that it just isn't justified and that the Japanese company is squeezing too much profit out of the new device that will be launched in summer.
“$249 is too much. Period,” Pachter said during GameTrailers' Bonus Round talk show. He added that Sony executives “made it clear that the PSP Go pricing strategy was intended to compete with the iPod Touch. I don't disagree with them that the comparison is favorable from a technology perspective, so I can't fault their logic. However, the iPod Touch has a ridiculously loyal fan base, tremendous brand awareness, gigantic advertising support, a touch screen, an app store, and a LOT of music.”
He then revealed that, for a gamer, it would be the best device. “The PSP Go has a better gaming architecture and better games, but lacks many of the features that the iPod Touch has. In my view, its price should be compared to the PSP 3000, which does pretty much all the same things and is $80 cheaper.”
So, it is pretty clear that at least Michael Pachter will hold on to the old PSP console and not opt to buy the new device when it will be launched. Do you share his opinion? Is the PSP Go priced too high or costing as much as a Wii and being more expensive than an Xbox 360 make it a good purchase? Leave us a comment with your choice.
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