- OK, lets start at the beginning. Merrill Lynch, (a huge investment firm for those that do not know,) posted an article (PDF document) analyzing the cost of manufacturing the PS3 for launch this year.
- They came up with a figure of $800 which mostly comes down to the Blu-Ray drive and Cell processor. These are new components and there is a limited amount of manufacturing throughput.
- Because of this, Sony may choose to delay the PS3 to lower losses since they could not possibly sell the PS3 for $800, (rumors right now have reached upto $500 as the starting price.)

Merrill Lynch's Tokyo-based analyst Hitoshi Kuriyama on Feb. 17 downgraded Sony's stock to "sell" from "neutral."

- But now Sony have denied the findings in the Merrill Lynch report, as reported in a Bloomberg piece.

"There is no change in our original plan to release the console in spring 2006 in Japan," said Kei Sakaguchi, a Sony spokesman in Tokyo

- The BBC on the other hand has a report which seems to flip flop all over the place, but here are some important clippings:

Sony said if industry specifications on some of the PS3 were not decided soon "the launch could be pushed back".

"We're aiming for spring, but we haven't announced specific regions," a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment said.

They said Sony was waiting for final specifications - which are decided by industry consortiums - on some of the technology in the PS3, including that connected to the Blu-ray disc drive and to input and output video and sound.

"We're waiting for them until the last possible minute, but the launch could be pushed back if they're not decided soon," the spokesman said.

- Joystiq picked up a piece that gives another clue as to the release date. Nvidia, the graphics chip manufacturer for the PS3, are not claiming royalties from Sony this quarter, which means there are not being any GPUs produced, which means there is no way they could be out in time for this Spring or even Summer.
- This is getting complicated!