There's talk of something crazy like 300,000 being allocated to the UK alone for launch...that'd certainly blow Ninendo's ~130,000 Wii consoles out of the water.

I see no one mentions the other aspect of the ps3, adding a complete operating system to it. It can replace youre aging slow PC (except for playiing games and that`s being worked on) by adding a Linux OS such as Yellow Dog Linux, http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/ other flavors available such as Gentoo the Linux OS of choice for modding Xboxes. you can even get these on Live cd`s that will boot up without installing them just to try it out. Requires a modicom of effort but easy enough, just google for info. Guess what ? I`m runing YDL typing this on ps3 with usb keybord and mouse attached. There you have it my friends if I can do it your grandma could errrrrrr I`m a grandad too.

by the way PS3 is classed as Power PC 64