Apparently, whispers suggest that Microsoft is seeing a spike in sales due to the release of Kinect, and they working hard to meet this demand so that they are able to achieve their sales goal of 5 million units sold before the end of the year.
According to retail sources that we spoke with, supplies of the other varieties of the Xbox 360 consoles should be enough to satisfy demand for the holiday season. As one source told us, “The situation isn’t ideal, but we still have significant inventory of the Xbox 360 4GB model, and in fact, we have a good number of the 250GB slim upgrade hard drives if buyers want them. It isn’t ideal and it costs a little more, but if you had to have a 250GB model for Christmas, we could sell you one; it just would cost a little more and come in two parts.”
While our sources tell us that the lack of replenishment of inventory of the Xbox 360 250GB model is only apparently going to affect North American retailers, retailers outside of North America should have ample inventories of the 250GB unit through the holidays. Whispers suggest that this is nothing more than higher than expected sales fueled by the release and promotion of Kinect, with perhaps a bit of cautious early ordering on the part of many retailers.