http://digg.com/gaming_news/Sony_announce_financial_results_5_5_million_PS3s_shipped_3m_sold#c6722168

Slowest Freight Ever ...

"To Sony, shipped has always meant 'sold' and shipped to retailers,'" Karakker notes. "Microsoft views 'sold' as what has been sold to retailers but could be sitting on pallets in warehouses or stacked on store shelves. 'Sold' to Sony has always meant what the consumer has actually purchased."               http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=93548

I don't know if I'd put too much stock into what this guy says. He's not in the upper levels of management, just a pr guy talking to a reporter. 

Oneda is one of the big guns at Sony and anything he says at an official earnings conference can have serious legal implications if incorrect. 

I want to change the subject a bit. I'm impressed they managed to make 5.5 million of these things, given the problems towards the end of 2006. At that time I don't think people thought they could get anywhere close to their 6 Million goal. I mean, Nintendo only sold 5.84 million and probably had very small inventory, so only made a few hundred thousand more of the console that is meant to be much easier to make. So Kudos to Sony for that.

who cares for karakker? just read the f***ing Sony financial report on page 5. http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/06q4_sony.pdf "Production shipments of hardware and software are counted upon shipment of the products from the manufacturing bases. Sales of such products are recognized when the products are delivered to customers." shipped = left the factory, either sold or unsold sold = shipped to retail And shipped to retail does not mean that it arrived at retail. This depends on the negotiated shipping conditions. Luckily, alls this will be kind of moot in a year, when 2 million systems more or less do not make a big difference anymore.

gentian, I second that.

It'll be interesting what will happen if the PS3's price is cut soon. Sony paid $800 to make these and will be selling them for $500 instead of $600. Add in the cost of warehousing and such and it comes to nearly $200 million down the drain. As Fisheyjoe was mentioning, if the PS3 doesn't start selling soon Sony could also see much of their manufacturing cost reductions lost as they will either have to run the factories at less than economic rates or lease more warehouses and hope they still don't have to halt production later.

Something to consider, if I recall (and I'm going by memory so I could easily be mistaken) the Dreamcast and GameCube both had to halt production after they had only sold, to consumers to make it clear to certain folk, 5-6 million with 5-6 million consoles in various warehouses. 6 months in and Sony is half way to that situation.

"Worldwide hardware production shipments" is what I read. Using your logic means Sony is shipping PSPs and PS2s to warehouses.