You're blaming Nintendo for something they didn't do. The PSP2 has to cost more than 300$ for Sony to be able to break even. With all the power they're putting in that thing, it can't cost less than 300 or else Sony would be losing money. You think a powerful device like that could be priced under 300$? I don't think so. Nintendo and Sony aren't competing with prices. They can't. Their systems are just way too different in terms of hardware and software that their prices can't be comparable. Some cell phones that have less power than the NGP (ie. Iphone 4, EVO 4g, Droid 2) cost 200-400 dollars ( depending on if it's bought with a contract or not). I'd say the NGP will be priced anywhere between 300 and 400 dollars. Any more than that and they will be competing with their PS3, which they don't want to do.
I'm blaming Nintendo for one thing and one thing only: raising the "acceptable" price for a handheld gaming system by coming in at a high price themselves.
And I think any attempt to figure out how much the NGP costs to make is disingenuous. You can't compare it to 3DS pricewise, because Nintendo purposefully chooses to use four-year-old tech in order to make large profit margins. You can't compare it to cellphones, either, because they sell at even
higher margins so the exorbitantly-priced contract phones seem more attractive. Sony's always sold consoles under the "razor and blades" model, either making a teeny profit on consoles or (more likely) subsidizing consoles at the beginning of a platform's lifespan to attract customers who buy their games and offset that subsidy by buying games.
The
only thing we know for sure about its price is this -- Sony chose what they believed to be a reasonable price before designing the NGP, and have never strayed from it when choosing parts to put in the console. The design for NGP was finalized before Nintendo gave a price for 3DS, so that price must have been something Sony would have believed to be competitive with a $200 successor to the most popular gaming system ever created.
I strongly, strongly believe that Sony would not have chosen to risk a $300 handheld under those circumstances.
Speculating about the cost of the parts is useless, because we really can't know that. Sony's attitude, on the other hand,
is knowable, and they've chosen to insist that their device's hardware is conservative, rather than act like their device is so awesome we'll gladly shell out whatever they want to charge us.
Considering how damaging that kind of claim could be if it turns out they
are charging $400 for the thing, I think it's pretty safe to assume that the difference in price between NGP and 3DS is going to be
much, much lower than the hardware would imply.