ok so Microsoft released the shipment figures for 360 LTD and for the 3rd quarter( past quarter)

According to Microsoft 19 million X360 were shipped to retailers,,

as for the 3rd quarter

According to VGChartz:

360 Sales for the quarter = 1,840,178

but according to Microsoft:

1,300,000 units shipped to retailers

So I am wondering if 360 has been overtracked by around 500,000 units here?

Nevermind Got it... hmmmm, this is especially during the shortage, so you can assume the "in store" stock is close to 0 at the time.

Although I have to say... 1.3 million console in a quarter is just pathetic. and that's in 2-3 different SKUs

Ok ,,so let me say it this way:

for the 3rd quarter(last quarter)MS announced that 1,300,000 units were shipped to retailers

but VGchartz shows for that quarter  1,840,178 were sold to customers

So my question is that ,,,Isn't VGchartz number rather high according to MS shipment figures ?

No, because it would include any stock that was in stores.

^^^360 hardware sales are clearly been over tracked. the total of 360 sales should only be about 17.5 million. Apparently MS announced 19 million 360 consoles had been shipped in total ending 31st March 2008.

I however believe PS3 hardware have been under tracked and the total of PS3 should be around 12.5 million.

The Wii hardware sales are about right.

but wasn't MS facing shortages?if so there can't be 500,000 in stock and sold to the customers on top of the shipments

500k in stores WORLDWIDE is not many, and we have no information on how many were in NA.  Actually, the numbers fit just about perfectly with MS trying to play catchup production-wise the entire quarter.

You realize that there would have been plenty of stock in the EU after MS's dissapointing Christmas there, stock that would have quickly disapated after a successful price cut in the region? 

NA NPD: ~ 820k (US NPD: 747k CA NPD: Est ~ 70k)
JP FAM: ~ 40k
EU NIN: ~ 400k
Others (Australia, Other Europe etc): ?

Total: 1260k + others

I wouldn't really call it a successful price cut, it boosted sales across Europe by around 13k first week, and then second week which coincided with Easter it increased by around 4k more than PS3, and 3k less than Wii. Then it started heading back down towards where it started. GT5:P gave PS3 a bigger increase than the 360 got from the price drop. From the price cut and over Easter until the end of the quarter Microsoft sold around 130k 360s in Europe. I really wouldn't consider that plenty of stock, it's just not needed in Europe.

I agree with OP. X360 is over tracked a lot, about 500-600k. I posted about this earlier.

Anyway, we need to wait for ioi sell through vs shipped comparison. He did one for Nintendo pretty fast but Microsoft's is taking longer...