How did you get those numbers, exactly? What weeks? I get 2,9M for jan+feb.

I dont know about those monthly productions, they seem to be going up and down all the time. I mean, look at the old Sony figures. Up to 2007 Sony reported nothing but production figures. Only what their factories put out. So they should form a smooth curve, right? Far from it. I don't know how exactly the factories are working, but it seems there's no problem being some 50 % over or under the nominal production capacity.

On top of that, some will tell you that Nintendo express freighted lots of Wiis of the December production to be able to sell them in time for the holidays. Those units were missing in the first quarter. Others will tell you that Nintendo is holding back Wiis for the spring quarter because they don't want to sell more then their forecast, which I think is nonsense, but many people believe that, so whatever.

And finally, the weekly figures (outside Japan) from ioi are not gospel. They could be totally wrong, and we'd never find out because nobody else reports such detailed figures (outside of Japan).

 man, i think you are right. I missed one week there, the one for 6th of January.

so 3.6 - 2.9 = 700 K of "non existing" produced yet not shipped wiis...? 

Didn't they said that they should have 1.8M by start of fiscal? I thought so. And isn't Fiscal Year at 31st March? Maybe all factories haven't started up or something.

I don't see a lot of other solutions.

Well, they were flying consoles out in December, which was basically taking away from stock that would have been shipped out in January. As for February, well, they're not sold out WW, so it's more of a case of allocating too many to PAL and Japan, and not enough to NA.

It's very obvious now that it isn't a case of overwhelming demand. Wii has been out too long. You don't hear people talking about it anymore. It's more Nintendo giving off an illusion.

I think that's pretty normal. Production increases were not from January 1st (I think) and unless you have all customers standing in one huge line, there will be some "overhead" when dealing with a global market. You always have a lot of product in transit on boats etc and in areas with lesser demand.

I expect at least 1,5M for March.

How come you always claim it is easily available in the Netherlands while I experience exactly the opposite for 3 months in a row now. I think I only saw them in stock once or twice since December, and the last time it was in a bundle.

Btw, if you check the status at Otto.nl it says it is sold out at the moment.

Ahh... yes, I knew you wouldn't let me down.

Here is the stockpiling excuse!

I'm seriously trying to figure out what excuse will come up next.

Stockpiling for: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas 2010, Veteran's day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, E3, Labor Day, Election Day, Arbor Day, Earth Day.  Jeez.  There looks like it'll be many excuses to have this year

No it's in stock and has been for a long time. link

I mention Otto because that's where we bought the Wii for my kid sister. I know some shops which only take orders, but really that's not needed.