Analyst: PS3 shortage possible

No doubt that the PS3 is selling hotter than hotcakes right now, and with the way it’s going it’s possible that there might even be a shortage of the console. According to Stern Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, the sales appear to be more than market expectations for this month, so it’s possible that a lot of folks will have trouble finding a PS3 late in September.

No doubt that the PS3 is selling hotter than hotcakes right now, and with the way it’s going it’s possible that there might even be a shortage of the console. According to Stern Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, the sales appear to be more than market expectations for this month, so it’s possible that a lot of folks will have trouble finding a PS3 late in September.

According to Bhatia:

Our channel checks show that PS3 hardware sales remained strong in the second week of September following very strong sales in the first week of September. The first week of September saw a 300% lift at top retailers according to Sony. Our checks suggest stronger pent-up demand than expected. We now believe PS3 hardware sales in September have the potential to be up as much as 75% y-o-y versus our most recent upwardly revised expectation of +50% y-o-y. We believe this is stronger than market expectations.

Remember that late in August, retailers reported that their first shipments got sold out even before early September, which was supposed to be the official launch of the PS3 Slim. As for the figures that came later, we know the number 999% all too well by now. Depending on supply, Bhatia notes that sales can even exceed their estimate of +75% year-on-year.

If sales continue its current direction, Sony will have to ship out more units for the coming holidays, where the full blast of the hardware sales wars is expected to erupt. The price cut and the Slim are blowing serious wind on Sony sails, but the same cannot be said about the Xbox 360. “In contrast to the PS3, our checks show that hardware sales of Xbox 360 have shown only a slight lift of around 5% to 10% following its recent price cut,” Bhatia said.

• PS3 Slim sells 40,000 in the UK in week one
• PS3 Slim smashes previous Japanese PS3 sales records
• PS3 beats Xbox 360 and Wii by three to one, sales up 999 percent
  

Via Industry Gamers