Leathem pointed to skyrocketing prices for rare earth minerals like indium and yttrium, saying that rising prices also reflect rising raw material costs.
Will Gamers Pay Exorbitant Prices To Play The Playstation 5 Pro As It Goes on Sale?
Although gamers are surprised by the price tag of the PlayStation 5 Pro, which goes on sale Thursday, consumers have not been put off by the tech industry’s growing sticker shocks.In the United States, the updated version of Sony’s flagship gaming console costs $699.99, which is $250 more than the previous PlayStation 5 model.In Europe, it will cost an outrageous 799.99 euros ($860), which is 250 euros more than the previous model, and in Japan, where Sony is headquartered, it will cost nearly 120,000 yen ($780).
“I doubt that I will purchase it. “I do not want to spend that much money on a console,” Tokyo-based 45-year-old businessman Hideki Hasegawa stated.
Consoles “did not cost more than 30,000 yen” in the past, he remembered.With the 2020 release of the PlayStation 5, Sony has an opportunity to incorporate enhancements that enable games to run more quickly and with better graphics in the Pro version.At an event in September, Mark Cerny, the lead architect for PlayStation, declared, “It is the most powerful console we have ever built and a worthy edition to the PS5 family.”However, Junya Ayada, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, stated that the higher price “looks challenging from a marketing perspective.”
In 2016, Sony released an upgraded version of the PlayStation 4, which cost more than the original, but analysts said this did not help the company’s faltering sales. Emerging technologiesNot just Sony is forcing customers to pay a premium for their newest gadgets.According to Jack Leathem, an analyst at Canalys, a company that studies the technology market, “whether it is sort of, you know, phones, video games… AR glasses, smartwatches, it is a broadly similar trend across all device types.”
The iPhone 16’s starting price of $799 is significantly higher than that of flagship smartphones five years ago, even though Apple maintained the same price for the iPhone 15 when it launched in September.Similar trends are seen at Samsung and Apple’s rivals, who have started offering foldable phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 6.”These are new players in the market that are introducing new technologies, which will typically mean that comes with a premium price,” Brian Comiskey, a consumer technology association expert on technological evolution, told AFP.
Leathem pointed to skyrocketing prices for rare earth minerals like indium and yttrium, saying that rising prices also reflect rising raw material costs.Another effect has been the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into gadgets.”These businesses need to turn a profit,” Leathem stated.”And by raising the device’s price as well, they are having to sort of balance off the sheer volume of money they are investing in AI and new technologies,” he said.
Technology in installmentsPrice increases, however, do not appear to be dampening consumer enthusiasm for the newest technological advancements.In the first nine months of this year, Canalys reports that almost 310 million smartphones were sold, a five percent increase over the same period the previous year.According to Josh Lewitz, an analyst at Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, “the price range for phones has definitely increased.”
However, customers are also keeping their gadgets longer, and in many countries, including the US, phone providers are allowing customers to pay for their phones in installments.Michael Levin, another analyst at Consumers Intelligence Research Partners, stated that this has diminished the significance of the relative price difference.
