This guy was asking the quality question way before the PSP Go
The PSP Go just launched and the blogworld is in a tizzy about the price – $249 – and the apparent chintziness of this new PSP replacement. You see, the device doesn’t support Sony’s exciting UMD optical standard and is generally reported as “feeling” cheaper than the bulky but solid PSP. The PSP Go also requires you to buy your old games in UMD-less form, at least for the time being.
So basically you get a smaller device, are forced to pay for downloadable content you probably already own, and, according to the teardown we linked to above, you get a poorly-made device with quite a few extra potential points of failure.
Why am I bringing up this litany of complaints? Because of something Sony execs said back in June, namely that they PSP Go is a premium product and was therefore priced higher than, say, the Nintendo Wii.
Quoth Andrew House of Sony Europe:
“Those aren’t the factors. When you introduce a new piece of hardware you have the opportunity to say there is a certain premium that is associated with it, and we took that into account.
So what is this “premium” of which he speaks and why would you have been laughed out of your local Egghead if you had mentioned it maybe 15 years ago?
Over the past few years manufacturers have jumped on the “premium” bandwagon. This has been especially apparent in the past year with HP, Dell, and even Asus creating “unique” products at a higher price to offset the cash they’re losing selling $299 laptops at Wal-Mart. For example, I have no fewer than three premium laptops in the house right now, and that’s not even mentioning the supposed premium offered by Apple in their MacBook Pro line.
Premium in this case is a loaded word. What is premium anyway, but perceived value attributed to a device by price, design, or packaging? There is a lot to be said for the iPhone’s sexy box – it’s sealed in a coffin when you get it and it opens up with a puff of air reminiscent of opening a box from Tiffany or Cartier. A laptop I just tested came in that same sort of box and the Dell Adamo came in a plastic coffin that looked like it had been delivered via pneumatic tube from the inner sanctum of haute ordinateur designers.
This is not to say that premium products aren’t worth it. I’d recommend a MacBook Pro over a standard laptop any day and I’d have a number of reasons for my recommendation. I always recommend Bose noise-cancellers when folks and not because I’m drinking the Bose Kool-Aid.
But there is also a bad habit some manufacturers fall into that destroys the premium paradigm completely. This happens, when, like the PSPGo launch, the product clearly does not match up with its “premium” moniker. Sony, of late, has been the worst offender in the “false premium” market and it comes from a sense that their products are still leading in terms of mind share but they are definitely lagging in terms of quality, availability, and value. Samsung, too, has fallen into this trap and I would say that many point-and-shoot camera manufacturers create “false premium” products through the use of visual design cues to suggest quality (knurled knobs and analog read-outs are a big tip-off) while stuffing the same old gear into the same old boxes.
If everything is premium, nothing is premium.
Manufacturers have painted themselves into a corner. For the price of a nice meal in Midtown you can basically buy yourself a laptop or a smaller desktop. LCD monitors cost less than some keyboards and printers are basically free. Computing machinery, on the whole, is cheaper than it has ever been.
But the tendency to create a two-tiered system is becoming disingenuous and difficult to take. While some companies know how to do it well – Apple and Bose are marketing geniuses who add a little value to commodity hardware and then add a few zeros to the price – but the rest of the manufacturers seem to be building “premium” models that never sell for an audience that doesn’t exist. Imagine an U-graph. On one side you have the “real” premium products like gaming machines and on the other you have the Wal-Mart specials. The valley between the consumer Apple is aiming at with the MBP and the consumer HP is aiming at with their cheap-o Wal-Mart specials is deep and wide, and it’s tough to move from one end to the other without creating problems of perception and losing value. Does HP make commodity consumer hardware or “high-end laptops?” It does both. Is the PSP Go a cheaper, fun game machine or a “high-end product for the gaming professional?” Who knows and, more importantly, who cares?
Clearly Sony thinks no one does, more importantly, it believes it can get away with any number of shenanigans to make some profit. The same goes for any number of PC manufactures who are, currently, walking that thin line between quality and price.
You just have to look at the Palm Pre, and you realize they are talking about the service/design/functionality and not necessarily the build.
These companies sell you on the idea of being able to do X,Y, and Z like you’ve never done it before. It isn’t until you get the package when you realize that it may provide these benefits but if it doesn’t feel right, or look right then you’re never going to walk around with it to enjoy it.
Creative used to make a Jukebox MP3 player. This was right before iPods came out and the fidelity was awesome. So was the battery life. The thing was shaped liked a CD player, and almost no one wanted to buy it because it was HUGE.
Fortunately, customers vote with their wallets and companies are taught tough lessens that it’s all about how it feels….then about how it works.
Great article, just a few points that came to mind:
1. This only emphasizes the ever growing importance of user-experience or usability design. It’s amazing how much someone will overlook weaknesses in a product (price, quality, lack of marketing, etc) if the product is usable.
2. I’m not sure they care if the premium products sell as much as if it helps to create perception in buyer’s minds that the lower end product is then worth a bit more. It’s the same thing that happens when you see 3 package options on any web 2.0 site, with the middle suggested. It doesn’t look that bad after you see the “premium” to the right of it. Yet, if that premium weren’t there, suddenly the middle option looks a whole lot more expensive.
I’m a hardcore gamer and also work in the games industry, and no one I know is taking the PSP Go seriously. No one I work with professionally thinks it is going to make any kind of serious impact, and no game fans that I interact with care much about it.
That’s because the PSP Go isn’t meant as a serious contender. It’s just a real world test for Digital Distribution only portable gaming (note that they are continuing to sell normal PSP along with it for the same price). I wager they want to get the kinks out (and test to see if there is even a market for it at all) before PSP2 and a revamped mobile PSN take the gaming world by storm. At least, that’s the reasoning that would make PSP Go seem even halfway sensical.
Or they had a bunch of Mylo cases lying around and decided to something with them.
It wouldn’t be quite so bad if the games weren’t also available in retail previously, but for people who already have a collection of UMD PSP games, it makes absolutely NO sense to upgrade. None. Zip. Zero. And when you realize that the only real advantage for the PSP Go! is for Sony, I don’t get why anyone would buy it.
Were Sony to be releasing the PSP2 via digital distribution only, then I think there wouldn’t be so much backlash, but I though not alienating your core consumer base is something you learned in Business 101? O_o
Yeah, good point. That’s why they were (initially, at least) going to have a good will transfer UMD games to PSN program. No idea why they cancelled it.
I’m not saying that I agree with what they’re doing with the PSP Go, but it’s not really alienation if the bread and butter is still there. It’s not like they’re forcing an upgrade. As far as improvements, upgraders would only get Bluetooth and the form factor. Everything else is doable on the 3000. They’re offering both models in stores (at least for now), so they’re not even forcing new purchasers to upgrade either.
If you are a serious gamer, you stick with PS3. PSP and PSP Go are not for serious gamers. I agree I have PSP and I won’t be buying PSP Go.
We wont be running out of the house to snatch up one of these.
I think Sony don’t need you either so we are both happy.
Exactly, Sony doesn’t need you in order to lose money, they can do it on their own (get it?).
We wont be running out of the house to snatch one of these
You were being sarcastic with the “exciting UMD” thing, right? :p
“If everything is premium, nothing is premium.”
yep. And that’s why it’s important that the least expensive products in every category should suck balls… So that consumers have incentive to buy something more expensive.
I know nothing about gaming consoles, but if the PSP Go does suck, maybe Sony will use it as the entry-level device and lower it’s price and/or increase the price of some soon-to-be introduced premium version. Might be a win-win for Sony?
“I’d recommend a MacBook Pro over a standard laptop any day”
and if you made that recommendation every day for a year you’d be wrong 353 times (and correct only 12 times) to reflect the 3.36% market share Macs had last year.
But more on topic, marketers will say that anything “new” has a premium attached to it. I think there is a severe lack of good old fashioned economics going on. If people want to buy it, lower your prices so you’ll sell more. If people don’t want to buy it, then raise your prices to cut even on the few who will buy it.
Except no business that sets an MSRP ever gets to raise it (they don’t benefit, the retailer does) which is why it takes forever to drop the price because they want to maximize revenue when it’s still popular. The hope then isn’t to sell the same number at a higher price but to sell more at the same price (and it takes a while to reach that equilibrium).
Apple has one of the overprized products.
Glad to see a reference to Pirsig (even if its just a photo) in today’s society.
Keep in mind there is usually no one-size-fits-all marketing approach to marketing. Selling a “premium” product has proven to be successful for generations. It’s standard operating procedure for many manufacturers. Some brands are defined by this. It’s their positioning strategy so they don’t get commoditized as fast as other brands. This is why Apple doesnt have a netbook. It needs something different that it can have reason to charge good money for but at the same time compete with the commoditized netbook. Same with Sony. As much as all of us want them to drop their prices, they don’t. If they do, it changes their entire brand strategy. Instead, these companies release things that price-wise try to fit in to the product category but still reflect the company brand even in their lower price tag. Take a look at the new VAIO W netbook. It’s still 10 – 15% more than comparable netbooks. Sony probably feels their brand name makes up the difference.
I personally have no problem with the premium moniker on products. Yeah, many of them are the same product with some chrome paint but as consumers it’s our job to calculate the value. Value will be defined differently by each person. To a Mac owner they may feel a $2500 MacBook Pro is a good value because they don’t need to buy 3 PCs over the life of the same period of time. A PC user may feel that $799 for a laptop is a good value because it’s almost two grand cheaper than a MacBook and Moore’s Law dictates it will be obsolete quickly regardless of how good the specs are.
I say if people don’t agree with the PSP Go’s “premium-ness”, Sony will see that in their sales. Sony isn’t forcing anyone to buy it. Look what happened with the PSP-3000. No significant improvements and people perceived the screen was crappier. It let the market dictate the product.
I am worth it, but can I afford it? Gadgets and personal computers are so much a part of everyday life, it’s no wonder some people would pay a premium so they can have the appearance of being somehow different (better?)
People who still buy wrist watches know the difference between a Rolex and a Timex. Both can tell you the time yet the Rolex sets the owner apart.
And company’s get mad, complain, and cannot understand why people pirate music, games, software, and movies. I read in game informer this month they may make it a crime to resell used ps2 , x box 360, and all other video games, making stores like game stop and funcoland(if still around) have to go out of business. Who wants to buy a 60 dollar game then not like it or beat it and are stuck with it for life since you cannot sell it back. I will not be buying anymore legit games, I am tired of being ripped off
I made the mistake of believing in the “quality” of the Sony brand, which probably meant something a few years back, but doesn’t anymore.
From the start my Vaio was noisier than my 3-years-old Toshiba. The fan noise is ridiculous.
Then the motherboard failed 3 months after purchase. The “worlwide” guarantee, on my BUSINESS LINE laptop, did not apply to where I lived at the time: Shanghai, China.
In other words Sony (a Japanese company) doesn’t think Shanghai (a 20 million people city, one of the biggest hub for business travel in the world) should be included in its “worldwide” guarantee for his BUSINESS line of laptops.
The only way not to pay was to ship the whole laptop to Europe – at my own risk and expense. Then, Sony said , it could be repaired for free. This was their suggested solution. Me shipping a 3 kilos laptop to Sony Europe instead of Sony Europe shipping a 40 grams motherboard to China.
In the end I paid 300 bucks 3 months after purchase for the privilege of having a noisy Vaio I could switch on.
Stay away for Sony’s stuff.
It is better than broken XBox 360 at least.
Your photo picture on this article sucks and the article didn’t make any sense.
go home, dad, you’re drunk
Nice Article.
Here i found some PSP products, new one on best match… Have fun.
Steve
http://www.justcompareit.com/s~q-PSP.aspx?ag=3
Enjoyed the Pirsig photo. Long live the MOQ!