"To date, Sony has shipped 5.5 million PlayStation 3 units . . . . " http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=25038

5.5 million PS3s have been sold to retailers according to page 5: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/06q4_sony.pdf

 Sony has cut Microsoft's 12 month head start down to 5 million hardware units.

so?

And according to the site have sold 3.3. As narj said, So? Even the 360 isn't doing that poorly.

geez 2.2 million ps3s just hanging about?

How do you know that is sold to retailers and not just shipped out of their factories to some warehouse somewhere?

The retailers just love having $600 paperweights in their stores filling up space. Nothing says success more than a head high stack of PS3s. It makes them feel rich.

It also says that 3.6M have been sold

Sold as in sold to retailers, not customers.

I guess its true they having supply constraint of producing 6 mil units.