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 =)
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