Too many companies put too little emphasis on price. Amazon wised up long ago and steadily cut the price of their Kindle, keeping it lower than competing E-readers and much lower than other tablets.
Thankfully Sony are taking a leaf out of their book. Apparently they have downgraded the specs of their upcoming NGP portable gaming device to keep prices closer to that of the Nintendo 3DS.
Some Sony fans will be furious that Sony have cut down the specs (that is if the rumours turn out to be true.) But, we’re in a tough time economically and even if two consumer goods are completely different like the NGP and the 3DS, a lot of potential customers could be swayed by price tag alone, especially those buying a portable console as a gift.
Of course the important details here are which specs have been downgraded. Reports suggest that onboard memory has been halved (from 512MB to 256MB), whilst the 128MB V-RAM graphics remains untouched.
Sources say that the downgrade will have some impact on the device’s functionality, but Sony made the decision after they became concerned that the system won’t be competitive if it is much more expensive than the 3DS. The NGP unveiling is scheduled for the upcoming E3 conference where Nintendo is also expected to flaunt the Wii 2.
With the 3DS currently being sold at as low as £157 (John Lewis), you’ve got to wonder how low Sony will go. My guess is around the £220-£240 mark.
What do you think? And what do you think of the spec slashing? Is there even a market for the NGP, bargain price or not?
Surely the future of portable gaming is in smartphones like the Xperia Play. (Who wants a smartphone and a portable console to carry around?). At least the 3DS has its novelty value of being 3D, along with its family friendly ‘brain training’, ‘mario kart’ etc appeal.
Let us know your thoughts about this by sending us your comments below, or if you prefer you can always tweet us instead @Gadget_Helpline.