Stan Beer
Wednesday, 27 September 2006 11:06
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 4
Sony PlayStation made its debut in 1995 and has sold slightly more than
100 million units. PS2 was released in 2000 and has sold more than 106
million units (some say 120 million but we'll go with the lower
figure). Total Sony console sales since 1995 are therefore about 206
million, an average of 18.7 million units a year.
Putting that into percentage terms, of the big three console players,
Sony has 62.5% market share, Microsoft has 19.4% and Nintendo has 18.1%
share.
Looking at sales going forward of the next generation consoles, it
seems fairly obvious that the market has not been particularly
enamoured with Xbox 360. Despite having no next generation competition
for the past 10 months, including the holiday season, Microsoft, with 5
million
Xbox 360 consoles sold, has barely kept pace with its sales over the
past five years. Is there any reason to think that Microsoft can lift
its rate? Perhaps - we'll look at that in a minute.
Nintendo is unleashing its Wii console around
December. Is there any reason to think that the Wii will lift its
market share dramatically based on what has been shown?
