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noname2200 on 26 April 2008
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Sky Render said:
Stockpiling is a standard tactic, especially for conservative business plans. The reasoning is simple: if a product is unavailable when demand is highest, more sales will be lost than if a product is unavailable when demand is lowest. Working off of the various figures Nintendo has given, it seems like they try to keep at least 2 million units stockpiled at a time, and up that stockpile whenever possible in the time leading up to major releases and holiday rushes.

I did a rough calculation based upon what dates I remember Nintendo stated they upped shipments, and came up with this possible distribution:

Launch: 1.0m units available
November 2006: +1.0m (2.0m; sell-through: 0.5m; 1.5m unsold)
December 2006: +1.2m (3.2m; sell-through: 2.9m; 0.3m unsold)
January 2007: +1.2m (4.4m; sell-through: 4.0m; 0.4m unsold)
February 2007: +1.2m (5.6m; sell-through: 4.8m; 0.8m unsold)
March 2007: +1.2m (6.8m; sell-through: 5.8m; 1.0m unsold)
April 2007: +1.2m (8.0m; sell-through: 6.7m; 1.3m unsold)
May 2007: +1.5m (9.5m; sell-through: 7.6m; 1.9m unsold)
June 2007: +1.5m (11.0m; sell-through: 8.9m; 2.1m unsold)
July 2007: +1.5m (12.5m; sell-through: 10.0m; 2.5m unsold)
August 2007: +1.8m (14.3m; sell-through: 11.4m; 2.9m unsold)
September 2007: +1.8m (16.1m; sell-through: 12.6m; 3.5m unsold)
October 2007: +1.8m (17.9m; sell-through: 13.3m; 4.6m unsold)
November 2007: +1.8m (19.7m; sell-through: 15.7m; 4.0m unsold)
December 2007: +1.8m (21.5m; sell-through: 19.3m; 2.2m unsold)
January 2008: +1.8m (23.3m; sell-through: 20.6m; 2.7m unsold)
February 2008: +1.8m (25.1m; sell-through: 22.2m; 2.9m unsold)
March 2008: +1.8m (26.9m; sell-through: 23.5m; 3.4m unsold)
April 2008: +1.8m (28.7m; sell-through: 25.0m; 3.7m unsold)

Even if it's not 100% accurate, you can still see the stockpile effect taking place. Each month leading up to the holidays, there's a gradual increase in units unsold, which drops dramatically by the end of December, then begins to slowly rise again.

Thanks for crunching the numbers for me. You have much more patience than I.