There is a possibility you are right for a small amount (at least as far as I understand the supply chain, which is just my speculation, albeit well informed)
Sony likely did not ship any further PS3s after the last quarter ended though, so until the slim starts being sold (which VGC data does not include yet) there will only be 23.8 million stock.... but we have no idea where that stock is hiding... the only thing we know is that Sony no longer owns them.
500k however is NOT what the stock is at the end of that time because we still need the next week of data (week ending 29th) which includes the price reduction but not any significant slim sales.
So the remaining stock will be more like 350-400k.
if you will take a look back in time... when the Wii was "out of stock" everywhere... to a considerable more significant amount than the PS3 was last week (ie you could NOT find a Wii anywhere.. wheras PS3s are simple to find if you search now)
Even back then the Wii stock was still 100-200k or so going by Nintendos fiscal reports (the same kind of data as the Sony 23.8 million).... so for the PS3 to have 400k of stock when it is in short supply (rather than no supply) is a believeable number to me.
