Don't get me wrong, I like the PS3, Sony got a lot right with it, and I suspect in terms of raw power, it's still heads and shoulders above the competition. The price, for what you get, is pretty reasonable. Sony, could probably go still lower, Blu-Ray disk drives are a lot cheaper, the Cell processors out of IBM probably could get still smaller (lower power or faster, pick some combination). But $/MIPS, it's a lot cheaper than Wii or XBox.
However, there are some things Sony, did not get right, at all, and these are hurting the potential of the PS3 as a platform, I think in a very serious way:
1. Noisy
The fan seems to like run on the things, and when watching a Blu-Ray movie, particularly something where everything is not blowing up all the time, the fan needs to be quieter. Think Theater PC.
2. Needs to Stream Movies
If I have a full blown PS3, why can't it stream Netflix over the network. Plenty of MIPS to do that? I suppose Sony will have its own, proprietary formats eventually, but I'm getting a little tired of waiting. I'd like to be able to buy-on-demand a Blu-Ray or DVD quality movie, have it download to the box, and play (for a day or if the downloads are too slow, a week).
3. It's a Networked Game box, so...
Sony needs to open up the PS3 more, work on its store, come up with models more like iTunes (download music/video), and then Games should follow the same model. Keep the game on the server, allow me to buy a digital license, download it to the PS3. Or follow the Netflix model, let me have 4 games at a time downloaded, but charging a monthly fee. Also let the 3rd parties make some money. Come up with a You-tube type connection.
It's not that the PS3 isn't a good hardware platform, it is, and was, in many ways, ahead of its time. And the application potential is still pretty open ended. Far more MIPS there than you average home PC. But if there's any company that is more NIH (Not Invented Here) than Sony, I'm not sure what it would be. The home space is going to be deeded over by default to Microsoft and the PC platform (and Wii, who seems to be the only game console manufacturer to get that aside from a few Jolt! caffeinated 15 year olds, the vast majority of game players would like something simpler), unless Sony figures this out soon. Open up the console, make it easier to use, let 3rd. parties help simplify and extend, and the PS3 would then do fine.