So as you probably heard by now, Apple came out today and blew the doors off the building by announcing a $200 price cut on the must-have iPhone, bringing it down to a much more manageable, bordering on downright bargain, $399!

I’m sure iPhones sales have been slowing down a bit since launch, but we’re not even 3 months in and a $200 price cut?! I mean there were just reports yesterday that the iPhone was already outselling every other smartphone available.

But this is what Apple understands that a company like Sony (with the PS3) does not. A $100 price reduction on the iPhone would have been awesome and unexpected, but Apple wanted to destroy all doubt in the minds of those who kind of wanted one but were balking at the price. This move just bought them an even bigger piece of the pie in the long haul.

Whereas a company like Sony does a quasi-price cut months too late, Apple does a huge one months early. What do both companies share in common? Well aside from both of their devices starting initially at $599, both are trying to dominate a hot market (videogames and cellphones). Yet I would argue that Sony might even have more at stake as they are also trying to push their Blu-ray brand with the PS3. Both also came into their games late. Apple obviously into the cellphone market, but the Xbox 360 was given a year start in the next-gen console wars by Sony after they were forced to delay the PS3. How do you make up lost time and ground? Price cuts.

Imagine if Sony had done a $200 price cut on the PS3 a few months after launch? Sold out. Everywhere. It doesn’t matter if there weren’t (and still aren’t) games, people would have bought it just for the Blu-ray player. Sure, Sony would have lost money up front, but in the long run with PS3 game and Blu-ray sales, does anyone really think Sony would have failed to recoup the investment?

Instead, 8 months into launch we get a temporary $100 price cut from Sony, which did spark sales, but again, imagine a $200 one 3 months in. About 2 months in I threw out an idea for Sony to do a drastic $250 price cut to turn what at the time were fairly obvious tides against them, and blow the competition out of the water. Instead they did nothing and fell from the top of the videogame field all the way down to 3rd place.

Both the PS3 and iPhone will undoubtedly be must-have items this holiday season. The hotter iPhone will now just be even more must-have – and accessible.