What did you mean when you said the PS3 and 360 are 'pure profit'?
oh, that. a couple of things:
1.) Those two are known/widely assumed to be selling for way more than they should be. The PS3 in particular has undergone a significant cost reduction and redesign lately, but the price actually went up. They will price drop that soon- likely when the PS4 launches, but right now the price on it is fairly high and has pretty big margins on it.
2.) Those two platforms are coming to the end of their lifespans, and the market is pretty much saturated at their current price points. Sony and Microsoft won't be relying on new sales of them as revenue drivers. They'll still sell units here and there over the next couple of years, but the vast amount of software sales are going to be coming from people who already own units.
While citing the PS360 as the more viable option for a family on a budget I think that same argument can be aimed at the iPad and the Kindle itself. The Kindle is the by far the inferior model yet it's cheaper and is marketing directly to the Amazon audience.
The iPad is a bad example, because the iPad is marketed as a high end luxury device, that sells with significant profit margins built into it that spike the cost of the hardware. Apple makes money on the hardware side AND the software side. Consoles (PS3, 360) generally do not. A better example is the Kindle Fire vs. the Nexus 7 or Nook HD. exact same price, exact same audience. The only real difference there is marketing- and good luck out marketing Sony and Microsoft.
I imagine there is a huge sway of the audience out there that aren't interested in a 'traditional console' and instead want something inexpensive that caters to their specific needs ie Amazon apps/streaming and Angry Birds to keep the kids happy.
Angry birds is a poor fit for a controller based console. incidentally, you may be interested to know angry birds already exists on PS360.
While it's still early yet I suppose it's entirely possible that Amazon is targeting a family audience that Sony and MS are inadvertently turning off.
The PS3 sees most household use as a netflix box- it's actually the most popular netflix device currently on the market. It ALSO runs amazon instant streaming, and allows purchase and rental of new movies not available via streaming via sony's store. 80 million people already own one. how does amazon convince those people to buy their console in addition to it?