Neowin.net

Sales figures for the Xbox are likely to fall over a million units short of Microsoft's goal of selling nine million units by June unless the company cuts the price drastically, according to the latest research from market analysts.

According to Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbrush Morgan securities, Microsoft is likely to miss this sales target by a significant margin - with a realistic estimate of worldwide sales for the console sitting at between 6.5 and 6.6 million units. In order to make up the figures in time for June, Pachter believes that a very significant price cut will be necessary - significantly larger than the 20 per cent drop which took effect in Europe late last week. However, his estimates suggest that if the European price-cut were applied worldwide, it could boost sales by up to a million units.

Ironically, if the Xbox misses its sales targets, this will actually help Microsoft's bottom line financially. The company is still losing a vast amount of money on sales of the Xbox hardware - at least $100 on each unit, and quite probably more - in contrast to Nintendo and Sony, both of whom are thought to be making profits on their hardware thanks to cheaper manufacturing costs and, in Sony's case, the age of many components.

News source: The Reg

New and Improved

The new console can also output a progressive-scan video image, which should mean a better picture for users with a compatible television. The console is also quieter and the remote controller has been improved with the addition of a power on/off button and eject button--functions that require a trip from the couch to the console on the current model.

It's not just new features that make the SCH-50000 different from its predecessor. Sony has removed the iLink (also called IEEE1394 or Firewire) connector from the console.

"We took if off," said Furusawa. "The broadband environment has become popular and we think the capabilities that we wanted to use iLink for can be realized for users through the network."

The console will retail for around $207, which is just a little more than the current PlayStation 2 sells for in Japan at present. Furusawa said the company would announce plans for overseas sales as soon as plans had been determined.

Tough Competition

SCEI's move to add features to the PlayStation 2 comes at a time when Microsoft, one of its two major competitors, is cutting the price of its Xbox console to better compete. Microsoft last week cut its European retail price for the Xbox console by 20 percent to $214.

For its part, Sony has been trying to pump hardware sales through promotions and special edition machines, such as in February this year when it put on sale five versions of the standard console with colored cases rather than a plain black case.

In January the company said production of the PlayStation 2 had hit the 50 million unit mark.