Did you read the OP, if they offered SD cards - the hardware RRP price would probably most likely go up. The Vita system is probably cheaper because of the memory cards, because Sony knew that if they priced the system $50 higher then it would get a lot less sales. They saved you money.
Actually, I don't think they saved him any money. Even worse, they put themselves in a bad situation with their customers and probably made them spend more.
Let's say that the Vita did came out $50 more (costing $300) and used SD Cards. Going to use the following numbers:
SD Card prices:
8gb: $6
16gb: $9
32gb: $21
64gb: $31
Vita + 8GB SD Card: $306
Vita + 16GB SD Card: $309
Vita + 32GB SD Card: $321
Vita + 64GB SD Card: $331
Those would be launch prices. Let's compare with your current prices:
Now here are the Vita Memory Card Prices I got from Amazon.
8GB: $28
16GB: $42
32GB: $58
64GB: $107
The price of the Vita on
Amazon is $153. If you were to buy the system together with a memory card just like an iphone the costs would be -
8GB: $181
16GB: $195 (7% more than the Vita system + 8GB card)
32GB: $211 (16% more)
64GB: $260 (43% more)
Difference:
8GB: $306 - $181 = $125
16GB: $309 - $195 = $114
32GB: $321 - $211 = $110
64GB: $331 - $260 = $71
128GB: Tears
And consider that I am using the Vita price at launch and comparing with your numbers that use the current Vita price. Today Vita is $153 if compared to the $250 he launched, which is a 38,8% price drop. Applying the same drop, the $300 SD Card Vita would be around $183,6 today, $116,40 less from launch. Let's apply this to the difference before:
8GB: $306 - $181 = $125 - $116,40 = $8,6
16GB: $309 - $195 = $114 - $116,40 = -$2,4
32GB: $321 - $211 = $110 - $116,40 = -$6,4
64GB: $331 - $260 = $71 - $116,40 = -$45,4
So outside of the 8GB range, they didn't helped anyone save any money. That is considering that a person even needs to buy a SD Card, that those prices are the standard, not considering other discounts, etc.
I love the Vita, but the memory card situation was Sony was to over complicating things where it wasn't necessary. My theory is that they wanted to use the proprietary format to avoid piracy and hacking for the longest time possible. Problem is, it cost them and us a lot.