| SRLemmiwinks said: Great post Sqrl, first off.
Though everyone with half a brain knew they were stockpiling, the question is, why were they saying they didnt have enough Wii's to meet demand months ago when they were sitting on Mountains of Wii's. Shorting the supply to create demand, create enough demand to get free publicity and then flood the market during Christmas Season to post amazing numbers.
Of course I'll just be flamed for saying that, but at least half of you are thinking it. Really if you take a step back and think of the company involved as.. say Ford, I doubt you would think twice about it. But since its your precious Nintendo... Well thats a different story.
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Answers:
One: When they produce that 1,800,000th Wii on August 31st in China, it isn't available at the Chicago, IL Walmart that night at 6:30PM. No, it takes the boat ride to Seattle first, then shipped by truck to Chicago. That Wii wasn't sold until some day in October. Now if you want to say they are sitting on Waves of Wii's, I'll go along with that.
Two: Since they did have a limited supply to sell, 'when' to sell it becomes a critical decision as well. They and their buyers (ie stores) want that Wii to be sold in the holidays, when the $$$ are flowing and more than just that Wii will be bought for Christmas.
Three: Free publicity can work for you or against you. By holding back some (probably in China), sales increased over the holidays. Say instead of holding back, they sold out all 1.8M in October. Impressive. Then the same in November. With Thanksgiving sales they couldn't do better? And a measly 1.8M in December. The holidays and simultaneously, the fad is over (couldn't do any better than 1.8?) and a lot more noticable stories of not meeting demand.
Yes, for public remarks, Reggie is going to tap dance around the issue. But only because so many want to believe in the NJ5 "Increase Production" button theory. And most don't care that there isn't a "Instant Decrease Production" button in place like Ford has. Also known as massive layoffs.
Torturing the numbers. Hear them scream.
