As we know, Nintendo has stated that they've been producing 1.8 million Wiis per month since around August-September. It seems that there was some major stockpiling for the holiday season, but inevitably, sales will have to drop to production levels in the next few weeks as the stockpiles are probably over.

The important question is, do you think that Nintendo is still producing 1.8 million Wiis per month, or that they have increased production again in the meantime? 1.8 million per month gives around 414k units per week, will Wii sales drop to that level soon?

That wouldn't show up in terms of January/February sales, unless they only stock part of the increased output for the Chinese/South Korean launch.

It is true that they'll have to increase production for that launch though, I don't see 1.8 million per month being enough for Americas + Japan + Others + China / Korea launch...

I think they might be over 1.8 by now, the sales over the holidays seems to indicate slightly higher prduction

When I was at work on New Year's Eve, a customer of mine (who works high up in UPS) said he had to go in for four hours on his day off to coordinate a huge Nintendo shipment of Wiis. He said Nintendo spent MILLIONS to get them to their destinations that day. I forgot how much the entire shipment weighed, but it was a lot.

They seem to be very desperate to get as many on shelves as possible.

P.S.- I live in Seattle

Much of the increased sales in December was from paying extra for shipping, which means they borrowed against January sales... so I expect January sales to be down some.

By about March you may see it upped to 2 million, and summer about 2.2 million, and that's about as high is it'll probably get, until early 2009, if needed.

 I think it could go higher around 2.5-3.0 per month, and it will definetly be needed, SSBB, Kart, Party 9 and Wii Fit will be unstoppable

I think we'll definately see a drop in January especially in NA since they raided their Jan stock to help holiday sales. Then I think sales will be lower than 1.8/m not because demand is low, but because they will try to stock pile for a China/India launch. But if at the new levels (still higher than Jan 07) they still can't keep Wii's on shelves, then they'll look to up production again, which I think is a certainty.

According to IGN Wii Fit is postponed in NA until Q2 as is Mario Kart (no longer in March). MK arguable could be for quality, but more likely since they'll already exceed projected numbers they'll hold it back until the next fiscal. Wii Fit must only be a case of not wanting to raise demand more than they can meet.

At this point I think they'd be smarter to postpone WiiFit in NA until Jan 09 (cause the demand in NA is crazy enough for now) and launch it in casual loving Europe instead where it'll be huge and blow Sony right out of the water.

Edit: Correction - WiiFit is now listed only as TBA 08. Mario Kart is Q2 (July-Sep) 

Nintendo is about as conservative as companies come ...

I would expect that for Q1 (at least) Nintendo will continue with production in the 1.8 Million console/month range, if supply is still tight (or, at least, stockpiles are not growing too quickly) Nintendo may increase production to 2+ Million consoles per month in Q2; they will then determine whether their new level of hardware production is adequate to meet demand through out the entire year.