Pachter says Sony is 'ripping off' consumers with PSP Go

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter hates the PSP Go. Alright, alright, he doesn't quite hate it, but he does despise its price point. On a recent episode of Bonus Round, Pachter matter of factly states, "$249 is too much. Period." He goes on to say that while the handheld is priced to compete with Apple's $229 8GB iPod Touch, it doesn't deliver the iTunes App Store or downloadable music from iTunes (as conveniently, at least, as the iPod Touch).

Furthermore, he posits the $250 price of the PSP Go is vastly overinflated considering its contents, claiming it costs Sony less to build and ship the PSP Go than the PSP-3000 model, "The $169 PSP-3000 is a profitable device -- the disc assembly, for a UMD, costs more than 16 gigs of flash does. So this new device doesn't cost them as much as the PSP-3000 and they jack the price up $80?" When Keighley presses Pachter as to whether Sony is "ripping off" the consumer or not, he answers, "They're rippin' off the consumer ... they're making a lot more money on the PSP Go than the PSP-3000."

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/09/pa...s-with-psp-go/

If $249 sounds a lot just try £229 or $370 and by october that will be closer to $400. You'd think since everything will be downloadable that Sony would keep the price low to sell more consoles and make money from PSN, this just shows Sony's completely lost the plot and only interested in selling hardware and just making software an afterthought.