The problem with analyzing the Wii right now, is that since it has always been supply constrained it has been difficult to truely measure the demand its under. That has made comparisons with the other consoles difficult. But at last, I think we're going to see the Wii finally in stock world wide.

 This is exactly what I want because you can then start understanding some key economics surrounding the system.

Price elasticity - How much more people will buy at a lower price

Substitution - How much more/less of X console will people buy if the price of Y console goes down.

Total demand - We can find out how many systems are selling and would sell if it was in stock.

I would say the important measure would be substitution. We can see how much people consider the other systems as a complete picture. For example if the Wii price went down and the sales of the PS3 went down a lot and the sales of the Xbox360 went down a little, we would see that people consider them to be substitutes for one another, like Butter and Margarine.

Thanks! :)

and you think this because?

You could start judging it in Others and Japan since it isn't supply constrained there. Infact you listed price as a factor, the 360 is cheaper in Europe and still gets outsold so you can analyze from that what you want.

The question is if the Wii will ever stop being supply constrained. The second the demand starts to slip, there will probably be a price cut, sending sales thru the roof. Nintendo is sittin pretty.

Price is a factor, but only when the two are substitutes. I would say price is a factor between the PS3 and the Xbox360 but not so much between the PS3 and the Wii.

I actually wanted the U.S because its the market I understand the best, im not a foreign language speaker anyhow.

Well if it comes in at full stock in the U.S - you have comparisons when the Xbox360 finally does a price drop or a feature increase, possible Wiimote addon, but probably not games. I don't think people change their minds between an HD console and the Wii over the games, because if they were that interested they would have already purchased one.

 Actually, you would tihnk that would make it fairly easy to determine the kind of demand it has...

Yep, it does have high demand. But it would be good to absolutely quantify it. That way we can have 3rd and 4th quarter to compare the sales of the consoles without one being out of stock even some of the time.

 It would help when MS supposidly releases their Xmote, when they do their price cut, when the more mainstream games like LBP and BK3 and Viva Pinata 2 come out.

"The problem with analyzing the Wii right now, is that since it has always been supply constrained it has been difficult to truely measure the demand its under. That has made comparisons with the other consoles difficult."

And in other news, the sun came up this morning and pie tastes great!

We compare the demand of the 360 and the PS3 to an arbitrary number for the Wii, which is always higher than the competitors' demand, but always lower than the Wii's demand.

Do we even want to discover the true demand for the Wii? That knowledge could very well crush our already-fragile grasp on reality.

it sounds like you just finished taking AP economics and want to desperately apply those concepts on wii.

well, you know, in the real world, it is rare we actually encounter situations closely to the "equilibrium". the wii would be an example.