Sony PS3 Buildout Begins

July 27th, 2006

By GadgetManiac

Sony has already begun to receive initial shipments of their next-gen PlayStation 3 game console from contract manufacturer Asustek. Newspaper DigiTimes reports that inventory levels will be driven to the 4M mark in advance of the November 11, 2006 official launch in Japan, and November 17 for the rest of us. No word on the breakdown between the Basic ($499) and the Premium ($599) models of the PS3.

Sony’s eventually hoping to move more than 100 million PS3’s, with 6M palletized by end of 1Q07. While the PS3 has it’s supporters, others suggest that sales of the PS3 will falter due to it’s high price (2x that of the Wii) and the advent of the Xbox 360 – this despite the PS3’s much-vaunted Cell Processor and Blu-ray and its 48 Mbps bitrate.

Still others think that the best way forward for the PS3 is to advertise more aggressively and less cerebrally. They suggest reprising last year’s Welcome Chang3 ad campaign, but with a more human face. A starting point would be to emulate the fake Welcome Chang3 ad that features Jeon Ji Hyun, but instead use the softer BoA to play the part of the PS3 model.