Sony's recent redressing of the PS3's production problems has made it profitable according to Richard Doherty, an analyst at the US research firm Envisioneering Group.

The analyst told Bloomberg that thanks to Sony's resolution of its production issues the PS3 has actually been profitable for several months, while he reckons that Microsoft loses money on every Xbox 360 it sells.

“Any price cut they try to make puts them more into the red,'' says Doherty of the 360.

When Sony announced the PS3's US price cut and 80Gb version release Jack Tretton said, "We've gotten our production issues behind us on the PlayStation 3, reaching a position to pass on the savings to consumers, and our attitude is the sooner the better".

That did not, however, indicate that the PS3 is now a profitable piece of hardware.

If Sony is in fact making a profit on each PS3 sold, that would certainly be a marvellous piece of business. While Sony has always been coy about the manufacturing costs of the PS3, it was widely believed to initially cost around $240 (£118) more than the 60Gb version's original retail price of $599 (£296) to manufacture.

While Sony has had over six months to streamline its production process, a reduction to the point where the PS3 is already profitable seems unlikely.

SPOnG would be very interested to hear where Mr Doherty got his figures from.