What the hell is wrong with the PS3?

Sony has held the top position in the Game console market for several years, but its grip on the market is loosening.

Technically speaking.

The PS3 is a killer of a console, and has some of the most incredible hardware available on the market, to be quite frank, there is only one hardware platform that can come close to it and that’s the PC and even then it would be a very expensive PC.

3.2GHz Cell Processor
nVidia RSX 550MHz
Dolby 5.1 DTS LPCM
1Gb NIC
11g/b Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
Blu-Ray Drive
Detachable HDD
256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
HDMI Output

At launch there were two major problems that faced Sony and this is reflected in the disappointing sales figures encountered by the company. Firstly, HDTV had not entered mainstream and secondly the playstation 3 is a very expensive toy.

HDTV

At a time when 90% of all installed TV’s globally are Standard Definition, Sony chose to release a games console that could only truly deliver on a HDTV display. This is simply poor judgement on the part of the Japanese electronics giant.  A more appropriate strategy would have been to hold out for 12 more months until the market penetration for HDTV had started to make serious in-roads from the enthusiasts to the John Doe’s. Ultimately what happened was a console that was too much too soon made it to a market that was not ready for it.

Show me the money

Here in Australia the average retail price of a PS3 is $998. This is hugely expensive for what is a toy and prices it out of reach of most families. The scariest part of that price tag is that despite the expense Sony do not make a profit on any PS3 that they sell. The component costs are so great that Sony sell the machines at a considerable loss. Despite that fact the PS3 price tag is well out of reach of the average family.  And unfortunately for Sony that’s their target market.

Marketing

The PS3 is so powerful that it can do many things, but that in turn creates a marketing nightmare. The PS3 is being marketed as a digital entertainment hub, but it has two major competitors in that space. Microsoft and Apple, and frankly Sony’s message is being lost. The PS3 won’t find much buy-in with people who already have invested heavily in networked PC media systems who have a wide choice when it comes to media playback devices for the home.

The PS3 is expensive enough to present many potential customers with a quandary, do I buy the replacement Computer or the PS3, and the last time I checked Microsoft Office doesn’t run on a PS3. At this price point this is the reality its competing against. It is too in-flexible to replace a PC and its too expensive to be just a toy.

Catch 22

That’s just the start of the problems, the PS3 needs killer games fast. Games are what sell a games console, not fanciful services like Home. Home is interesting from a conceptual stand-point but a games console is not much without games, and quite frankly the PS3 doesn’t have those killer apps yet. Unless Sony can increase the sales of the PS3 dramatically it will not get the titles that it desperately needs. Without those titles the console will not sell. Especially when it comes with such a hefty price tag.

60GB? 80GB?

The next problem with the PS3 is the hard drive. Quite simply its too damn small. With 60GB you could maybe fit two blu-ray 25GB movie’s on it and that’s it full. 80GB is about the same. Most new Desktop PC’s are shipped with 500GB to 1TB of storage space. And with Only one disk slot on a PS3 what do we do when it fills? Buy a bigger one? How do we get the data and our purchases of the other drive, or do we need to swap the drives like an asshole every time we want to watch purchases downloaded on the other drive?

Big Mistake.

One great feature of the Playstation range has been superb backwards compatibility with earlier titles. But Sony slapped its fans in the face by stripping the hardware based emulation out of the PS3 and replacing it with ineffectual software emulation. This single decision served two purposes against Sony. 1. It alienated the Sony fanbase that had accumulated a large library of software. 2. That will have resulted in lost potential sales as the upgrade path was no longer guaranteed.

In order to help the situation Sony released a list of compatible software, however some games that it says run fine actually may execute correctly, but specialist controllers for the games wont work, Guitar Hero II springs to mind.

My Conclusions….

The PS3 was too much released too soon at too high a price. It will not break into the market easily with a price tag of more than US$500. The console tries to do too much as a result of its over-specced hardware, and Sony are paying a serious price for that. It can not compete against the Wii and many of the exclusive titles are rapidly becoming cross-platform as developers seek to minimise their exposure to a platform that is not meeting expectations.

As a media platform It can not compete against the fexibility of a PC. Many people who have heavily invested in home theatre and PC media based systems are extremely unlikely to purchase a PS3 to do the same task.

I believe that the right place for the PS3 is Christmas this year, however with global credit markets putting the squeeze on interest rates, home owners who are already struggling with mortgage repayments are going to find it tough to justify such a massive expense. The cost of the console is only the beginning, the display that you need to take advantage of it is going to be at least an additional AU$2000. This brings the TCO of a PS3 up to AU$3000.

The PS3 is a device for the future, unfortunately for Sony that future is being eroded as other technologies which are keeping pace with Consumer sentiment stay in line with the wallet, and not the aspiration.

Qualifier.

Iam not simply a PC fanboy or a Mac fanboy, I am a technology fanboy and as such I am still going to buy a PS3 because despite the short-comings its the cheapest Blu-Ray movie player on the market. It also supports DLNA which is handy from a PC perspective. Maybe one day the aspirations will be equal to the promise that the PS3 may live up to.

Pimp My Ride Pt. 2

A horse walks into a Bar…… 

Well… What can I say except that recently I upgraded my beautiful bicycle. The first pimpage that I have carried out on it to date has involved me buying some new handlebars to replace the original ones on it, which were a simple aluminium bar with Carbon Stryke clip-ons, that although are good were let down by virtue of the fact that they were clip-ons.

The original bars had what is referred to as ’standard’ aero bars these have a hockey stick like appearance. Here let me show you….

Carbon Stryke Aero Clip-On

I decided to go for something that was flatter and a little more integrated. Because if any of you have used clip-ons before you’ll know they have some short-comings.

Captain Clip-on

Clip-ons have a couple of problems that I have experienced, the first is simply feel and feedback. Firstly when you ride with clip-ons the very fact that they are not integrated into the handlebar makes the ride feel dull and to an extent un-responsive but the second issue is a bit more serious; Put enough force/weight on your clip-on and it will pitch forward. Which of course presents the prospect of sending you head over handlebars. Integrated bar extensions solve this problem because the extensions arent clamped to the bar, they are locked into the handlebars.

The Solution

Bontrager XXX Aerobar – Carbon

A US$600 sight to behold. Pictured above with the Standard aero bar extensions, I however ordered mine with what is reffered to as the S type extensions. The S-type have a very slight bend that bring the front of the bars under the palms of your hands with a very slight tip downwards. One important fact to note is that the main body of the aerobar is oversize, so you may need to purchase an oversize bar stem to make it fit your ride.

 A Drag at parties?

This has one major benefit when you move into the aero-dynamic tuck. Your back is flatter against the wind which reduces your drag! Handy in races, but it may not improve your performance at partays.

S Bend Aero Bars to be less of a drag.

How does the bike handle with my $600 love fest? Well it feels like a different bike. Because of the integration into the main body of the handlebars and also because of the stiffness of Carbon the feel of the ride has changed to something more dramatic.  The handling is much more direct and requires me to make a minor hint as to the direction I want to turn in order to make the bike go there. Climbs are easier because the ridgidity in the handlebars makes it easy to sit out of saddle to pump the peddles for up hill sections.

The final Package……