XBox 360 shortage complaints and the irony of chip choices

The Seattle Post Intelligencer (is that a real word? And if not, why is it the name of a newspaper?) notes that retailers and consumers are starting to question Microsoft's launch strategy that guaranteed shortages and sold out stocks. We had noted that Microsoft was likely to have production problems last summer, and we still expect them to ship fewer than one million units before Christmas. While this will be a hot product this holiday season, I have to question how good a marketing strategy it is to market a product to customers that they can't buy.

There is a profound irony here. For nearly a decade, Apple Computer tied its fortunes to chip-makers Motorola and IBM, and the media constantly slammed the company for not being able to produce enough machines at fast enough clock rates to satisfy customers. This past year, Apple moved over to Intel, when Steve Jobs admitted that they had not been able to deliver the products he wanted because he couldn't get the chips to do it. Meanwhile, Microsoft, who had been the beneficiary of Intel's seemingly endless production capacity, decided to move to the very same chip-maker that Apple rejected. IBM is now the sole-source of processor chips for Microsoft's XBox 360. Let's hope IBM has more capacity and capability for Microsoft than it did for Apple.

Oh, and did we mention that IBM also makes the chips for Sony's Playstation 3 (although there is a second source there)?

Technorati Tags: Apple, Games, Gaming, Marketing, Microsoft, Playstation 3, Processors, Semiconductors, Sony, XBox 360