They dropped the price in Japan for the "low-end" model of the PS3 from ~$499 to ~$410 (12,200 yen cheaper), and they announced the low-end model would
have a HDMI port after all!
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060922-7805.htmlOf course, since they're only launching with 100,000 units for all of Japan, and they're all going to be sold on eBay (or the Japanese version of it anyway) for $8,000 it's fairly irrelevant what the list price is set at.
The addition of HDMI is interesting, as that was the one major feature separating the low-end version from the high-end one that likely couldn't be added later aftermarket. It was also really a must-have if you intend to use the PS3 as a BluRay player, as 1080p output would be crippled without the HDMI output. No word on a price drop for the US market, but so far it seems unlikely that they will follow suit in states-side. Also no word on the high end model coming down from the astronomical $599 price point.
Personally, I still think the PS3 is going to be a huge flop (ala Betamax). We shall see...