hehe i was wondering if this thread was gonna come back up...

i was completely wrong. I thought they would have a heap of wiis available for the launch :(

I think vgchartz will correct it next : it must be a problem (just 120 k with SSBB ? )

 I don't think that sounds more plausible, seeing as the Wii has sold nowhere near 1.8 million in Jan or Feb and certainly won't in March by the looks of it. They could not be foolish enough to step down production again. I think they're holding back units to maintain hype and momentum, an item regularly out of stock will be coveted indeed! I think there are a lot of Wii's somewhere in Nintendo owned facilities, but they recognize the value of keeping things as they are. Of course, they could just ship all of their hardware and saturate the market, but then they would not look as good when they stopped being sold out all the time.

If your product is nowhere to be found, it must be popular, and I think Nintendo are willing to hold back rather large shipments to maintain this image and stay dominant, it certainly seems to be working so why stop?  

That theory sounds foolish. It make sense to stockpile some units for big releases: You can sell more copies of the game with people buying the hardware for this game. But holding units back to increase demand makes no sense at all, because you cannot win anything from this increased demand. As you hold back the hardware the increased demand don't bring in any extra money. That sound like foolish marketing.

@ Mummelmann ) uhm .. do you really think Nintendo could increase demand any more ? It does have about the same demand as fresh water, electricity or O2 at this point (ok I'm exxaggerating a bit :-p )

It's not about increasing demand, rather about keeping it level.
It seems obvious that these stockpiling theories are bunk, so what's left?
A product that is hard to get will gain a certain repute and image and demand will remain relatively high, whereas a product that is readily available and never sells out doesn't stand out compared to competition.
As it stands; we don't know Wii demand and Nintendo don't know, and I think that's how they want it and will keep it for a while.
If you can keep demand up to ensure equal levels of revenue a lot longer rather than make quick profits and saturate the market, then that's what you'll do.
Shareholders and investors are not overly fond of quick cash, it has a tendency to not last, shareholders want a steady and stable stream of income so they can plan soundly for extended periods.
How is that foolish?

Edit: ^^ who mentioned increasing demand, I never wrote that? 

Yes, if you put it this way it sounds reasonable. I'm not believing that it is happening actually, but it might be possible.

i guess Ninty didn't stockpile after all - for Brawl but they were prob. stockpiling for holiday '08

Now reached the Wii 10M, a week after Smash-release the numbers are better as in the Smash-week. Who does understand this?