Sony production woes past for PS3?

Reuters claims that Sony is sticking to its targets of shipping 2 million Playstation 3s by December 31, and 6 million by March 31. That's quite a statement considering the company only managed to ship 197,000 units in November, which is far short of the 600,000 it had planned.

It really is amazing how much Sony's Christmas 2006 is mirroring Microsoft's of 2005, where Microsoft shipped less than a million units when it had predicted at least two. But if Sony actually were to ship two million Playstation 3s, it would not only outsell what Microsoft did last year, but probably would have a shot at outselling XBox 360 this year as well (data point: sales of XBox 360s in November were 511,000 according to NPD). But frankly, I think it is a long shot. My estimate is that Sony's actuals will be in the range of only one million rather than two this Christmas because of production limitations.

Should the Playstation 3 end up in second place this Christmas season, Sony shouldn't feel too badly. The #1 selling console at the moment remains the Playstation 3, which sold nearly a million units in November, and will probably sell nearly double that in December.

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