The Console Wars: Will Europe & Japan have Xbox 360 shortages? | Xbox 360, Playstation 3 PS3, Revolution

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Will Europe & Japan have Xbox 360 shortages?

By: Richard Allen

According to research reported on last week by analysts Piper Jaffray, the Xbox 360 could face serious supply problems for the Christmas season. As reported the research firm estimates up to 400,000 in Europe and up to 200,000 units in Japan by the end of 2005. The big question is will this be enough to satisfy demand during the busiest shopping season of year. If the Xbox 360 takes off, will 1,000,000 units be enough for us greedy Americans?

¶ D.Vader // 8/09/2005 02:08:00 PM // PermaLink

Anonymous
Microsoft sold 1.5m of the original xbox over its first christmas.

If you consider that the "launch" quantity represents the number of units they plan to have on hand on launch day, and that production continues after the launch day, a 1m quantity on hand for launch should be more than sufficient.

Take the time to do some rough (worst case) math ... if it takes them 3 months to produce 1m consoles, and they are producing consoles 2 months after they launch, you end up with a total of 1.6m units available during 2005.

If you expect a similar launch to the first xbox, they've got enough units to meet demand, but not with much reserve.

If you use the more widely accepted figure or 1.2m units on hand at launch, you end up with 2m units available during 2005. This would give them more than enough units; if demand outstrips that supply (ie: 30% more demand than the original xbox), they will have had an amazingly successful launch.

D.Vader
1.6 Million total. Worldwide. Consider that most will be sold due to preorders. Won't leave many left for the shopping season really.

We don't know how many months it takes to produce them.

I don't know how you go from 1.2M units to 2M. :)