By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY: As the shock of Sony’s $24 million PS3 giveaway sinks into the industry, the news ripples around the world, and competitors figure out how to counter it, Sony Australia’s general manager, sales, David Hargreaves says the promotion is a boost for retailers.

In the promotion, which is also being reported overseas, Sony is giving away a free PS3 with every Full HD Bravia TV sold between 1 July to 31 July. Sony has allocated 35,000 PS3s for the promotion, which are valued at $699 RRP.

“The problem of the industry at the moment is the declining ASPs [average selling prices] and we need to continue to keep value in the market rather than reducing the price,” said Hargreaves.

“We need to take these sorts of promotional bundling opportunities to keep value in the market and we’ve had a great response from our retailers on this Playstation promotion.”

Timed to coincide with the expected pre-Olympic Games spike in TV and general AV sales, this bombshell from Sony has caught competitors on the back foot.

“Our strategy was to have the best promotional plan during this period of time and that’s what we believe we’ve done,” said Hargreaves.

“We know it’s a good time to sell product and this is the way we thought we could ensure HD is at the forefront and our main aim is to continue driving the HD section of the market and this is a great opportunity for us to do that.”

In response to comment that the last time Sony did this same promotion there were delays in getting the PS3s to consumers, Hargreaves said that Sony Australia had learned from the experience and are prepared this time.

“We had an extremely positive version of this at the Christmas period and it went so well, although we had our issues around supply,” he said. “Nobody really knew how positive it was going to be so we were all caught off guard by how successful it would be.”

When asked whether Sony would sell 35,000 Bravias in the month, Hargreaves was quietly confident.

“I think that’s to be seen,” he said. “But to be open about the fact that we’ve got 35,000 Playstations to give away, we’re confident we’ll have a very successful month.”