Want a Wii? Wait until April.
by Candace Savino 
{ Dec 4th 2007 at 6:00PM }
It's been more then a year since launch, and demand is still heavily outweighing supply for the Wii. According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, the two won't manage find balance in the U.S. until April. That means that people won't be able to walk into a store and find a healthy supply of Wiis for another four months. Pachter also estimates that the Wii will sell 1.7 million units this December, beating out the Xbox 360 and PS3 despite its limited supply.Need we really bring up the printing money meme again?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John @ Dec 4th 2007 6:21PM
I heard the same comments from analysts last year. I also don't understand the production issue. Chipsets are readily available, so where is the hold up?
14 million units doesn't seem like a big number to me, and given the fact that Nintendo could perhaps pay a bit extra to get another factory cutting in to their current profit margin, they could easily recoup that loss thru extra software sales.
Joop @ Dec 4th 2007 7:45PM
They're making 1.8 million Wii's a month. That's around 60 thousand per day and 42 per second.
I wouldn't call it a hold up so much as simply not being able to push them out of the door any faster. They have upped production, just not enough. It's probably better from a cost standpoint to not meet demand for a few months rather than drop millions in new manufacturing plants that will be unnecessary in less than a year.
Ryan P. @ Dec 4th 2007 6:25PM
wow. a George Micheal reference? Really? Ok.
Mr Khan @ Dec 4th 2007 6:27PM
The heart of the matter is that Nintendo simply doesn't need to ramp up production. I mean they should, in all ethical sense, but they have no need
Scarcity keeps demand high, keeping people hunting. Sure you get a number of people discouraged, but the blue ocean theory gives you a wellspring to buy your product anyway. Beyond this, they are soundly trumping the competition, even with shortages.
hvnlysoldr @ Dec 4th 2007 6:48PM
The printing money meme is so true it won't die.
Shadow31 @ Dec 4th 2007 7:07PM
That's what I've been saying, by spring it should balance out.
And, maybe I have no right to say this considering I already have a Wii, but should Nintendo care about the scarcity? They are winning the console wars as is. At the very least, the Wii has practically become an impulse buy item. Some may laugh, but quite literally, people are snatching it up. As I've been around Christmas shopping, I've been noticing people seeing the Wii, buying it, then afterwards trying to figure out who they know might want it as a gift. Maybe that's Nintendo's strategy. People who are just considering it will buy it, worried they won't find one again for awhile. They're making it an impulse buy, which is actually a genius strategy.
So maybe Nintendo has reason they aren't ramping up production? It's not necessarily a matter of whether they can, but whether they would want to.
Mr Khan @ Dec 4th 2007 7:13PM
exactly what i said
they SHOULD care about supply constraints, but by no means do they need to care
hyAxis @ Dec 5th 2007 11:10AM
Here in Portugal (Europe), you just have to walk into a store, grab one and take it. No really, it's that easy, I don't think the Wii has ever really been sold out here.
Sean D. @ Dec 5th 2007 5:26PM
There was a palette of them on the floor by the registers at Best Buy when I was in there on Friday to pick up my XBox 360 Elite. I should have bought one when I saw it, because on Sunday, my dad told me for the first time that he wanted one!