Earlier today we posted a story about industry analyst Michael Pachter, who criticized Sony’s PSPgo and dubbed it a “rip-off.” Now he has come out of the woodwork once again to apologize for this statement. It’s ironic that one of the few things I agree with him about is something he’s now sorry for.
“I sincerely regret the choice of words in my response to Geoff Keighley’s question in last week’s Bonus Round, where I said that Sony is ‘ripping off’ the consumer by pricing the PSPgo at $249.99,” laments Pachter. “I made a poor choice of words, and I do NOT think that Sony is doing anything nefarious in choosing their pricing strategy. The company has the right to price its products at a point that they think is competitive, and has no obligation to sell products at lower than a competitive price.
“They have been subsidizing purchases of the PS3 since launch, to the tune of 22 million sold at a loss of $100 or more apiece (on average), so if they are able to make a profit on the PSPgo, more power to them. They are pricing at a point that positions the PSPgo competitively with the iPod Touch, and the PSPgo arguably has much more value than the Apple product. Notwithstanding my view that the price point is too high to generate more than a few million units sold, I really think my comment was unfair …”
Wow. I wonder what kind of pressure the man was under to do that. Either way, Pachter has taken back what he said about Sony’s handheld and hopefully Sony will accept the apology so they can all go and have hot make-up sex. Regardless, the PSPgo is still looking a bit too rich for my blood. What about you lot?
