BY: capitainered
DATE: 2002-May-22 19:07
SUBJECT: European kit price is 50% higher than US one!It's a shame ! Once again, Europe has to pay for US or Japan !
Let's make some mathematics : US kit (200 $) + Euro/$ conversion rate (roughly 10%) ==> 220 Euros. How do Sony people explain the 80 Euros difference ? The VAT is only 17.5 % (and I don't know if there's any in the US). And please don't answer with additional shipping or managing fees.
The US PS2 is sold at 200$, whereas the European one is in retail for 300 Euros. Same prices for the MS XBox. Why ? Because Europe is not considered as an important enough market to fight the price war in the same way in the US/Japan. So Europeans has to pay more for the console to limit the money loss on the hardware : US & Japanese markets are more important, so let's massively reduce the prices on those markets only. Some people will answer that "business is business", but in this case, Sony, don't expect any consideration from people you're laughing at.
But go back to the European PS2 Linux kit, and to the maths lesson :
a 40 GB HD (90 Euros) + a 10/100 NIT (10 Euros) + a USB keyboard (20 Euros) + a USB mouse (10 Euros) + burning a DVD (0,0000001 Euros) + a A/V cable (?) ==> roughly 140 Euros. And those are VAT street prices in any little computer store in Paris, so expect lower price for a company like Sony. So where do the 150 Euros in difference come from ? Would Sony dare sell 150 Euros the additionnal software dedicted to the PS2 found in the kit ?!?!
Given that the PS2 Linux kit is dedicated to Linux fans (that's the reason for which it is not available in retail, not to mislead a PS2 gamer), and so as directed to a "niche" market, will be available in small quantities, I had expected a different behavior of Sony for this product : the same price everywhere (apart from shipping and taxes overcost), and a reasonable price (understand : "not so far from the rough hardware cost"). It seems to me that we are far from those expectations.
So what is Sony's goal with the PS2Linux kit ? To get publicity ? To perform a selection on the users by putting the kit price at an artificially high level (and we're speaking of LINUX software !) ?
I have been interested in Linux on PS2 ever before the PS2 release, and I had registered on the European site something like one year ago to explain my interest. But now it's clear that I will NOT buy a PS2 Linux kit at such a price.
This Linux kit is really like a big joke !
Capitaine Red <very disappointed, and brought back to the market reality by Sony> |
European kit price is 50% higher than US one!