UBS lead game analyst, Mike Wallace, offered
his predictions for the next two years in US hardware sales. Wallace believes that Microsoft's early start will pay
off, and despite only selling 607,000 units in 2005, the Xbox 360 creator will resolve its manufacturing issues and
move roughly 4 million units by the end of the year. By contrast, the USB analyst predicts that the PlayStation 3 and
Revolution will sell only 1 million units apiece by the end of 2006.And looking further into the future, Wallace forecasts that the early lead will continue to pay off for Microsoft, predicting in excess of 10 million Xbox 360s sold, compared to roughly 7 million PS3s sold, through 2007. He added that the installed user base of the Revolution should top 3 million by that time. By 2010, Wallace estimates that a combined 52 million next-gen units will have been sold.
Similar to predictions expressed in the SIG report, Wallace sees PSP sales—spurred by a price cut—surpassing DS sales by 5 million units in 2007. However, the analyst does believe that the GBA will maintain its lead in the portable market through the end of this year. Finally, Wallace foresees the combined installed user base of PSPs & DSs climbing to 43 million by the end of 2009.
[Thanks, Fuzz]
