Microsoft’s Xbox loss per unit $126
It was expected that Xbox would sell at a loss, most consoles in the past have. iSuppli research crunched some numbers and came out with a loss per unit of $126 US. The idea: make money off the games. In a recent issue of Technology Review, there was an article about Halo 3. Take a wild guess when Halo 3 is supposed to come out? ….. When PS3 launches.
An up-close look at the components and other materials used in the high-end version of the Xbox 360, which contains a hard drive, found that the materials inside the unit cost Microsoft $470 before assembly. The console sells at retail for $399, meaning a loss of $71 per unit — and that is just the start.
Other items packaged with the console — including the power supply, cables, and controllers — add another $55 to Microsoft’s cost, pushing the loss per unit to $126. These estimates include assumptions that Microsoft is getting a discount on many components.
IBM has the right idea:
IBM also has designed chips at the heart of the competing video-game systems — the Playstation 3 from Sony and Nintendo’s forthcoming Revolution system, both of which are due next year.
