Wii still rare in US? How is this possible.

[Steve 3.2]

omgwtfbbq said:

Faced with phenomenal demand, Nintendo will up their supply, but I don't see them supplying 20 million this year even with phenomenal supply.

Nintendo is a very conservative company. Increasing production is an expensive endeavor, and takes a long time to break even. If Nintendo decide to double production, then they might satisfy pent-up demand in a couple of months, and then suddenly they are producing millions of consoles expensively, and then they have to store them expensively because they're not selling as quick, they have to disable a production facility because they're producing too much, etc.

You'll most likely see Nintendo judging demand carefully, increasing production slowly, and making sure they time things well so that when pent-up demand is satisfied a new big game comes out and they are constantly selling the consoles they make.

I doubt there will be enough of an increase in production from Nintendo to have 20 million consoles sold at the end of this year, whether the demand is there or not)

While I also question if Nintendo will be able to get 20M out the door by the end of the year, Nintendo isn't taking the financial risk you think it is.  The Wii is currently made by Foxconn and Nintendo is looking for another company to help:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5056&Itemid=2

I'm sure Nintendo will work with Foxconn and this new partner to be flexible with their production amounts if necessary.  But at this point I don't think that Nintendo could make too many systems this year.  (Any extras made over the summer can be stockpiled and sold over the holidays.)