Nothing To Apologize For

I find myself in the odd position of both wholeheartedly agreeing with Michael Pachter’s feelings and disagreeing with his walk-back of them.  I don’t often defend Pachter, whose profession I view as a modern analogue of the prehistoric entrail reader, but he was absolutely correct to voice his opinion publicly.  For those who don’t know, he ran afoul of Sony when he termed the new PSP Go a “rip-off” - a comment he based on the assumption that, if the PSP-3000 were profitable at $169/unit, the new PSP Go (which lacks some of the components) is overpriced at $250.

It’s certainly true that as a professional analyst, and not a gaming consumer, Pachter has the obligation to sever his private consumer-centric feelings from his objective view of the companies he covers.  That said, seen in context, the comments were clearly a professional opinion:

“On a recent episode of Bonus Round, Pachter matter of factly states, ‘$249 is too much. Period.’ He goes on to say that while the handheld is priced to compete with Apple’s $229 8GB iPod Touch, it doesn’t deliver the iTunes App Store or downloadable music from iTunes (as conveniently, at least, as the iPod Touch).”

Pachter is clearly voicing his opinion of how consumers will see the product and its impact on the marketplace, not his personal feelings about whether or not he would feel like purchasing it.  Since sales of the PSP Go are directly and obviously relevant to Morgan Wedbush’s customers, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Pachter would have a point of view on the subject, nor that he would express those views publicly. 

Obviously, Sony doesn’t want anybody of prominence badmouthing their new product, and so I understand their aggressive response.  But as far as I see things, Pachter’s got nothing to apologize for.