So there are a couple of things that I hope happen in the world of gadgets before the end of the year. Both of these items are potential enhancements to my entertainment center.
First of all, I’ve been waiting for a Playstation 3 price drop for quite some time now. I would like to enter the world of Blu-ray, have been thinking of adding a DLNA client to my media setup, and would probably buy a game or two. However, I just can’t stomach the $400 hit for a PS3. As soon as the price hits $300, I’d be all over it. From what I’ve read on forums, a lot of other folks are waiting for the price drop as well. According to this Examiner article, the price to produce a PS3 has dropped 70% to about $240. Therefore, the $300 price point would not require Sony to sell PS3s at a loss. Unfortunately, the article also notes that Sony is likely to keep the price at $400 to recoup the money that was lost when the PS3 was sold for a loss. I’m not a financial analyst, but I would not be surprised if the increase in sales spurred by a price cut to $300 exceeded the revenue that Sony would make by continuing at the $400 price point even with the lower margin.
The other item I desire is a version of Adobe Flash that is optimized for the Ion platform. Nettops utilizing Ion are attractive because of their low power consumption, small form faction and HD capabilities. However, as several articles have noted, they strugggle when it comes to Flash performance, particularly full-screen 720p Flash video. This is of particular importance to many individuals contemplating incorporating an Ion nettop into their home theater in hopes of being able to watch Hulu on their HDTVs. I’ve found one lonely mention of an Adobe/Nvidia collaboration to enhance Flash to take advantage of Nvidia GPUs, but the estimated release date is not until 2010. Before I add a nettop to my entertainment center, it will have to be able to decode HD Flash video without hiccups.