Analysts still analysing; says Sony may have missed the mark

Although Sony hasn’t revealed exactly how much units were there during the launch, analysts posit that the company may have missed its established goal of 400,000.

According to the Kaufman Bros. Equity Research analyst Todd Mitchell, the numbers were “even lower than expected”. Although it may be true that people went out in droves to claim their PS3 pre-orders, or in the hopes of getting one from retail stores, whatever little amount of supply that was there still didn’t appear to satisfy the demand. In fact, some of them opted to sell their units to online retailers like eBay, instead of keeping it.

Says Sony spokeswoman Kimberly Otzman, “We shipped as many PlayStation 3 units into the North American market as possible and continue our efforts in supplying systems to retailers nationwide through the holidays.

The shortage in supply of the console may be attributed to a difficulty in manufacturing the machine due to a lack in a laser that is necessary for its Blu-Ray DVD player.

While more are waiting for the next shipment of more PlayStation 3s, Mitchell’s prediction is that customers would probably just wait for supply, and just buy more games for their PS2.

“If there is a substitution, it would be more for the Xbox 360. Demand for PS3 is for hard-core gamers, who wouldn’t opt for a Wii. It’s not an alternative to PS3.”

And you can all bet this won’t be the last we hear from these guys.

Via Bloomberg

Although Sony hasn’t revealed exactly how much units were there during the launch, analysts posit that the company may have missed its established goal of 400,000.

According to the Kaufman Bros. Equity Research analyst Todd Mitchell, the numbers were “even lower than expected”. Although it may be true that people went out in droves to claim their PS3 pre-orders, or in the hopes of getting one from retail stores, whatever little amount of supply that was there still didn’t appear to satisfy the demand. In fact, some of them opted to sell their units to online retailers like eBay, instead of keeping it.

Says Sony spokeswoman Kimberly Otzman, “We shipped as many PlayStation 3 units into the North American market as possible and continue our efforts in supplying systems to retailers nationwide through the holidays.

The shortage in supply of the console may be attributed to a difficulty in manufacturing the machine due to a lack in a laser that is necessary for its Blu-Ray DVD player.

While more are waiting for the next shipment of more PlayStation 3s, Mitchell’s prediction is that customers would probably just wait for supply, and just buy more games for their PS2.

“If there is a substitution, it would be more for the Xbox 360. Demand for PS3 is for hard-core gamers, who wouldn’t opt for a Wii. It’s not an alternative to PS3.”

And you can all bet this won’t be the last we hear from these guys.

Via Bloomberg