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Most technology is priced based on perceived value vs. the competition. Flagrant opportunism doesn't build loyalty which is critical to platform success.
Premiums for product scarcity will always be added by the fly-by-nighters to addicted consumers, but that's not something a large company wants to be seen promoting or even drawing attention to. They need to build the base, not get a quick fix. Think about cheap crack.
Consider the difference in news coverage if Sony started at $3k, micro-managing it exactly to demand. Instead of reports about flocks of fans lining up for days you'd see a very different and and unflattering picture revolving around the price and Sony's ethics. The excitement would evaporate.
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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195
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