Will not be generally available until March of 2009 in the US.

As kitler53 said they are going to try and keep ahead of the game enough to have stock for next christmas. After Smash hits in february I wxpect weekly totals to go down to 300,000. That will give them 8 months of holding back 600,000. I would say 5 million is the minimum they will need in addition to the regular production for holiday 08.

To get to the point where you can actually regularly find a Wii they will have to be another million shipped than sold. Additional colors would probably take a couple million units to impliment the switch but they could use the holiday stock to get that implimented.

I say a price drop is unlikely given the huge demand. They said they will maintain 1.8 million until fiscal year ends in March and then evaluate. My guess is they will start pursuing new contracts and settign up new facilities to go to 2.3 million a month. Those will probably come online in August.

at first the sales should be lower. Nintendo will most likely restock the retail channel in Europe.

we also wait to see what happens when Wii Fit comes out......if Europeans and Americans really care about their fitness, just like the Japanese......Wii will suffer from more supply problems.... :p

Stock piling for Christmas is foolish.

From Nintendo's perspective, it's better to get a sale today than a sale on Christmas.

First person who can figure out why gets a cookie.

Wii is a juggernaut and there is no stopping it. It has won this gen and Wiifit no matter how much of a stupid idea i think it is as a fitness tool, it will sell and push Wii sales even higher up.

Do we have to argue about this two years in a row, even after it's amply demonstrated that they do stockpile for Christmas?

No but we can argue about why reading comprehension is a good thing.

 Most people who have played Wii fit says it does give you a workout, plus its a motivational tool, because it tells you how you are doing and how far you have to go

 It can be argued that holiday sales are important for the PR bonus of winning the holidays