I think the EU financial/political situation back in those days was definitely an issue, and I think Nintendo avoided it to a certain extent as a result. I would say Sony proved those markets viable with the PS1, and Nintendo has been fighting over market share ever since.

Edit: I should say "sony proved how lucrative the markets could be", Nintendo knew they were viable, I just don't think they knew how much money there was to be made there given the situation 

i think they stoped the stockpiling from one to another day all gamestores in amsterdam have multiple wii's not the usual 4-5 but more like 25. and not sold out.

I think stockpiling for the holidays is extremely important. They really dropped the ball with the DS Lite last holiday season. The holiday season is by far the most important time for them. For Nintendo it has always been that way. If Nintendo doesn't stockpile there will be huge shortage issues, lots of families missing out on the system. Now it's still not going to be readily available during the holidays, but at least it's not going to take a lot of luck or a super amount of work to find one (hopefully).

I don't think Nintendo is stockpiling. There are three main arguments for stockpiling.

#1 Its normal in the console industry.

Yes it is. Theres are reason for it! Lets say you think you can sell 12 Million Consoles in one Year. So you produce them. You set up production to 1 Million a month. Problem is, you won't sell 1 million a month. You will sell 3 Millions in December, 2 Millions in November, 1 Millions in October. Means 6 Million in three month. So in the other 9 month you sell 333 k a week. Lets say the retailers just order what they sell, because they have enough units in stock. Well you overproduce 777k consoles a month the first 9 month of the year. You have to stockpile them. You don't have a choice. You just can up production for 3 Month insanely and go down afterworlds.

#2 Nintendo needs to stockpile. The "average dude" now looking for a Wii, will keep locking. The average gift buyer on Christmas won't.

This argument caught me, but if you think about it, you find the flaw. The "average dude" now looking for it, will look in November. If the Wii shipment increases, who do you think will get the shipped Wii. The gift buyer or the "average dude"? Who will get in line for the Wii? Most likely the "average dude". 

#3 Nintendo has to stockpile. With the current shipments they don't meet their goal. And upping production that fast would cost to much.

Nintendo wasn't stockpiling in February, where they? They already delivering more than in the begin of this year. So they have upped production. If they already stockpiling, they would have upped production already quite more than impressive. So the argument is: They wouldn't invest such money, but already have? Don't make sense to me at all. The next thing is, they also need more unit next year. Or do you think Nintendo will under producing in the entire lifespan of the Wii?

So i don't think Nintendo is stockpiling and shipping every peace they can produce. And i expect a massive increase of shipments this month. At the end of this month it will be 80 k more per week. I expect these units mainly to hit America (65 k).  Japan gets 10 k, Europe gets 5 (Since demand is satisfied for the moment).

 I expect the next boost to begin in mid September (100 k) hitting mainly America and Japan. This boost will be done (means reaching 100 k) at begin of October. 

At the end of October the next boost will begin (170 k) hitting all region (will be done in begin of December).

 I made an table. My scenario means they would ship (including last week) total 9.5 Millions till end of year. These numbers are the minimum i expect. Could be it go up to 12 Million shipped till end of the year.  

 I think in mid of January Nintendo though, the demand will fade away and they will be able to stockpile but not fade enough to stockpile enough, so lets up production a bit. These units hit the world at begin of April (Three and a half month later). At that moment nintendo though: Ok, Europe is satisfied for the moment, but America and Japan isn't. The demand will fade away a little, but hell whe won't have anything for christmass, lets up production big time (the production boost i excpect for august (Four month later)). Month after Month they realized more and more , it won't fade. And they decided to boost production ever since. But they need time for it. September and October sounds reasonable to me for this extra production line to begin factoring. 

Wow. Quite a large post, hopes somebody at least try to read it :) 

 hahahahha I found your post very funny.

 Noooooooo.... it is not their fault people want it so much... hahahahha :P

I had to make the joke. How could it not be their fault? Nintendo dreamed this would happen (might not have expected it, but wanted in the bottom of their hearts). They also went through a lot of research to make it very appealing. Ate the end, it is their fault. :P

I tried (and succeeded) to read it.  I'd be interested to see the table you made with your expected monthly sales.

Personally, I fall into the "I refuse to believe they aren't stockpiling" camp.  I have no hard evidence of it, but then again, no one does; it is all speculation.  However, I think Nintendo knows how valuable the holiday season can be ("For the second year in a row, this years hot gift item is the Wii! Nintendo just can't make enough of them to satisfy people's demand for it! Yadda Yadda Yadda!" [you know it'll happen]), and thus choose to believe that they are probably stockpiling.

They are almost certainly shipping more *as well*, but at least part of their increased production is going to stockpiling for the holidays.

Iff Wii shipments are up 29% as was said earlier in this thread (it sounded like that was worldwide maybe?), to me that says that their monthly shipments WW would be around 1.3 million (assuming an original monthly production of 1 million which i think is in the ballpark for the stat).  I am pretty sure they've probably raised by more than 300k/month, as even though it would take a while to get started I could see them upping it to either 1.5 or 1.6/month for at least the first year; at the pace they were selling it would not be a drastic increase, and even if the pace slowed down to more reasonable growth levels, they wouldn't be in danger of dangerous levels of overproduction.

 At 1.5 to 1.6 million units per month production, they could be stockpiling 200-300k units per month for the holiday season.  This would, throughout the 2nd half of the year including the holidays, be another 1.2 to 1.8 million (total) for the holiday season in addition to their 1m/month production already.

 And personally, I think 1.5 to 1.6 million units per month is on the low side of what I expect them to be producing now.  I think they are probably trying for 1.8ish (once again, only for a year or so.  After the year-long contracts expire they can drop some of the contracts.  It would be a temporary measure to try to satiate demand). [note: 1.8ish would mean a stockpile of 3m for the holidays (assuming it started in July)]

If anyone wants evidence that they are stock piling Wiis, just take a look at DS sales. Despite being sold out in Japan, there are MASSIVE sales spikes during the holiday periods. The only explanation is stock piling. There is no reason to think the same thing won't happen with the Wii.

Another big reason to think there is stockpiling going:

It makes a lot of sense for the stores themselves to stockpile. Any reason you can get over the competition for customers to be in your store shopping for gifts is very very good. To these stores a Wii sold now is not nearly as valuable as a Wii sold in Nov/Dec. I don't remember which store, but one of the major chains we know stockpiles, they keep all their units at central warehouses and ship them to their stores all at once and do nationwide ads for the Wii. I wish I could remember which chain it is but I think someone will remember, oh well.

@Just_ben,

#1 doesn't address these articles at all. Nintendo had at least 9 million Wiis before Jan 1st. I think it is likely that their supply chain infrastructure was the original problem. In essence I think this started as them not having the capacity to ship enough units even though they had them built.

#2 There is definitely truth to the idea that the same people will still be looking in addition to the X-mas shoppers but it doesn't mean you shouldn't try to reach this market. Not to mention that parents, grandparents, etc can be just as agressive at shopping for these things as gamers are. Nobody likes to see their kid dissapointed on X-mas morning. In my experience price tags are much more of an obstacle than elusiveness. Actually elusive items are probably more attractive for the fact that some people probably think "Well if this is hard to get and I get one, clearly it shows I care more!". Messed up logic but people think this way....

Your #3 is sort of new to me. The upping production quickly costing to much makes no sense I agree. The argument, at least from me, has always been that upping production takes time. You can't just pay more money to make it go faster we are talking about building, expanding, or retooling factories. Or possibly in this case expanding the supply chain, which is just as tedious. So in essence that one is still very much on the table.

And you can add in a #4 for the one I just added =)