How did the PS3 close the gap back to 8m?

[Munkeh111]

Squilliam said:

Munkeh111 said:
@ squilliam, they were 80k over their estimates, they shipped 10.08m instead of just 10. I would assume the Xbox needs more stock with 3SKUs, whereas the PS3 only really has 1 SKU at this point

My theories are:

A. They shipped a wad of consoles to help them transition to the slim model easier (I.E no shortages like the last transition)

B. They shipped a few extra consoles to meet shipment targets as they were down YOY Holidays 2008 and early 2009.

C. As for Microsoft, I don't really know what the heck they are doing... There are rumours about everything and nothing.

A: I am not sure about that. The idea of transition is that you run out of the old model, so clear it like they did with the 60GB sale before the introduction of the 80GB, so shipping extra consoles would not really help. Sony intended there to be shortages

B: Once again, I am not entirely sure about that, as I said, they did go over their estimates

C: Hopefully we will find out something at E3, maybe they'll have a slimline Xbox to fight the slimline PS3

Just to check, do Sony now do shipped to retailers rather than shipped from their factories?