In an interview with The Guardian, Sony Europe"s President David Reevers has revealed that Sony is planning to implement 45nm Cell processors into their Playstation 3"s, around the middle of the year.
Why is this important? First and foremost, it"ll help to get the price of the Playstation 3 down. This is important in today"s economy, as Sony announced third-quarter losses of £141m, and they need to get profits back up. Reeves stated, "We"re always looking at ways to reduce costs, replacing the current 65 nanometre Cell chip with a 45 nanometre one probably in middle of year. But will it be anything as off-strategy as releasing a PS3 with a DVD rather than a Blu-ray drive? I doubt it."
This is a good step for cost cutting, but it"s also good for the users of the Playstation 3. How so? A smaller nanometer CPU means lower power consumption, as well as less heat produced. Both are very good things, and should help move some more Playstations into the hands of customers.
The Guardian certainly doesn"t forget the Playstation 3 is still doing well, as they note "the success of [the] PlayStation Network, which overhauled the massive headstart of Xbox Live to amass 17.5 million users, 55% of all PlayStation owners, increasing revenues by 200% in 2008".
Mid-2009 should be a good time for those looking purchase a Playstation 3.