posted
As you may have noticed, the XBox 360 sold out nationwide on launch day, and nobody knows for sure when the next shipment will arrive. There's a rumor circulating that the shortage is just a publicity stunt.
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Joe Bentley
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posted
A video game console isn't a Tickle-Me-Elmo, you can only build so many of them. Like the Xbox the Xbox 360 uses a great deal of off the shelf computer parts and Microsoft has to depend on suppliers.
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quote:Originally posted by TB Tabby: There's a rumor circulating that the shortage is just a publicity stunt.
A publicity stunt by who, Microsoft? The shortage isn't giving them any good publicty, but rather giving people yet another reason to spew their hatred and vile obscenities towards Bill Gates etall.
What good publicity could possibly come out of this?
There quite obviously was a screw up somewhere along the supply chain which is causing fewer machines to be produced. However a great deal of blame has to go to all of the AssJack fanboys who waited all night on the day of release and then got into fistfights over the damn thing. Like they won't be available in June.
Morons, the lot of them.
Posts: 54 | From: Brunswick, ME | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Heh, I don't give a monkey's butt if there are any right now, I'm waiting until the price goes down before I buy one. Even with how much I love playing video games and really want an Xbox 360, insurance for my car and my cell phone bill are just a bit more important right now.
Heather
-------------------- Luke: I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you. Princess Leia: You're who? Posts: 560 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Benji's RiotGirlHeather: Heh, I don't give a monkey's butt if there are any right now, I'm waiting until the price goes down before I buy one.
You're probably less likely to get a buggy one, too.
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posted
The reason for the thought that it is a publicity stunt is that, by selling out all available units, it makes it the must have item for Christmas. Every year there is something that sells out completely, and there are fights to see who gets them (think Tickle-Me-Elmo, Cabbage Patch Dolls, or the movie "Jingle All the Way" with Ah-nold.) If the 360 is sold out, but more coming next week, then the parents who have to get the perfect gift will be running to get it - while if there were units available on the store shelves, then it must not be a "must-have" item. Microsoft says they forecast selling 3.5 to 4 million units in the first 90 days. They had 400,000 available on launch day, and basically sold them all. If they sold every single one they had built, then they still have to produce at least 3 million more and have them at stores within 90 days. Just dividing 3 million by 90 means they need to make 33,333 per day. (I know, they can't take 90 days to produce them, but I'm simplifying here.) At that rate, the could have produced the first 400,000 in 12 days. Since everywhere that was letting people pre-order had long since sold all the units they were going to get before November, Microsoft would have had ample time to make more units. Now, I'm not saying they did it deliberately, I'm just laying out the numbers. You tell me, was the shortage artificial or real?
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posted
There isn't a shortage, half of them are still available on ebay!
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Richard W
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Mabels Folly said: There quite obviously was a screw up somewhere along the supply chain which is causing fewer machines to be produced.
I doubt it - like Joe Bentley said, you just can't produce the things that quickly. I would imagine that they're making them as fast as they can - demand will exceed supply for a while regardless of any "publicity" caused by shortages, so why not?
If there are "screw-ups" they're likely to be to do with over-ordering, like Darth Credence said, not to do with anything slowing down production. And over-ordering isn't Microsoft's fault - how can they control shops taking orders in advance? Unless they're promising retailers larger allocations than they can deliver in the timescale, then it's nothing to do with them.
The shops themselves can presumably take orders regardless of whether they can fulfil them from their current allocation, because they know that the supply isn't limited - it's just limited now. So if shops are taking advance orders for delivery before Christmas when they know that they can't fulfil them, it's the shop's fault.
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