No, they weren't. Did you check inventories in January? I did. Twice. Out of the four major retailers I checked (Target, Circuit City, Walmart, and Best Buy), the 360 was roughly 80-90% sold out in January.
Couple that with a moderator on this site who stated that his retail chain couldn't get 360s for a month or so and you've got yourself a pretty solid case for a shortage.
BTW, it's a pretty good indication that there is a shortage when people are complaining that they can't find a 360 weeks before MS said a damned thing about this. I visit an American-centric forum and from the first week of January to the beginning of February, people were randomly popping online to mention how irritated they were that they couldn't find a 360 to buy in their area. MS hadn't said anything about a shortage before that point. Checking online inventories only backed up these peoples' claims that 360s were hard to find.
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