I'll agree with everyone in here that has said that it would be silly for MS to purposely understocked the 360 to increase the demand. And the supply shortages are real in the U.S. Of course the question is 'Why?'.
MS said that they underestimated demand. Possible. They probably didn't want to have a repeat of last year where they stuffed the channel with excess inventory. That could have also been exacerbated by retailers who bore the brunt of that action and ordered fewer units for the 2007 holiday season. Retailers order fewer units. Manufacturer makes fewer to match retailer demand. Consumers buy more than expected. Shortages occur.
MS had made modifications to the console many times in the past and there hasn't been a supply issue in over a year. The company hasn't been afraid to create additional skus (but I wish they would pare them down) and have 'old' hardware sitting right new to units. Unless there is a major update coming, I doubt that such an action has caused this shortage.
In fact, the current supply issue could throw off any planned price cuts since demand typically spikes after such an action and there are only the crappy Arcade units to be had.
Numbers are like people. Torture them enough and you can get them to say anything you want.
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