Sony rains on its own Playstation 3 parade

It was to be the most anticipated big-ticket gadget to debut this year - the Playstation 3, with Blu-ray disc drive and a new graphics engine for high-definition gaming.

But the delay in the launch here of Sony's gaming console, from November to March, leaves retailers with no hot new gadget to push for Christmas.

Sony revealed earlier this month that Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Australasia would be cut from the November launch of the Playstation 3 so it could save its supply of consoles for the crucial Japanese and North American markets.

Even with the scaled-back launch, there are likely to be major shortages of the new machine. Only 100,000 will be made available in Japan, 500,000 in North America.

That's a far cry from the two million consoles Sony expected to have available worldwide for the launch.

The problem stems from supply shortages of the blue laser diode that powers the Blu-ray disc drive that Sony has been determined to put into the Playstation 3. The drive allows movies to be displayed on high-definition screens at much higher quality than conventional DVDs and is really crucial to the Playstation 3's success. The inclusion of Blu-ray explains the Playstation 3's excessive price tag - $1200.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 console launched here in March, but the console did not come with a built-in high-definition disc drive, a sacrifice Microsoft made to get the consoles out sooner. An external HD-DVD disc drive is being readied for sale by Microsoft, but as an add-on device it's not ideal, doubling as a next-generation DVD player for the lounge. In going out without an internal high-definition DVD drive, Microsoft signalled its belief that people don't want one device to meet all their entertainment needs. Sony believes the opposite, but has rained on its own parade by missing a prime opportunity to launch its all-in-one device in time for Christmas.

So what else looks enticing for Christmas? Not much. Consumer electronics retailers typically do around 30 per cent of their annual business in the Christmas selling season and they'll have been relying on the Playstation 3 to bolster sales. Nintendo may have its cheaper Wii console on sale in time for the rush but no release date has been finalised and the Wii has much narrower appeal than the Playstation 3.

The new Core 2 Duo-powered laptops will hold some appeal but with the new Windows Vista operating system missing Christmas as well, buyers will be holding off so they receive the new system factory-installed in February or March.

If anything gets the juices of gadget buyers flowing this Christmas it will be flat-screen TV sets. There's a war raging between the manufacturers of plasma screen TVs and those who are backing LCD. It means that prices for flat-screen TVs have dropped sharply in the past 18 months - a 42-inch plasma screen is now selling for under $3000, down from $3499 last Christmas. To take advantage of the advantages of Blu-ray and the high-definition gaming of the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, you'll need a high-definition screen anyway, so it will be a good time to upgrade the ageing box in the corner. The question is, after shelling out on a flash new TV set, who is going to have any money left to spend on the Playstation 3?