More analyst talk has spread throughout the wire. Once again it is Paul-Jon McNealy who's on top of the soap box. The American Technology Research analyst has made a combination of both proper analysis and improper analysis recently (hit or miss) — rendering his credibility questionable.
So what's on the platter from him this time? Well, he claims that PlayStation 3 shortages and Nintendo Wii shortages will ultimately continue all the way up to June. While we can't speak in regards to Nintendo's production woes, perhaps McNealy didn't get the memo that said Sony's blue laser diode manufacturing crisis has been resolved.
Maybe he hasn't walked inside a store to notice that shipments of the PS3 have been quite frequent, and finding one on store shelves has become a lot easier. Or maybe he hasn't noticed that eBay prices of the PS3 have plummeted down to retail levels due to improved availability of the console in stores.
The analysis cited GameStop and Best Buy shipment numbers, with a GameStop employee in Southern California claiming they only get 1 or 2 units a week. Where as Best Buy gets 25 per week. But going by these numbers is hardly accurate. We all know placing a call to GameStop and asking an employee how much of something they have left will always yield a lie. They'll tell you they have 2 copies of a game left, when in reality it's closer to 10. We know the drill; we've worked the retail circuit before.
Based on the collective research we've been doing ever since the PS3 has launched, a more accurate shipment number of PS3s -in the tri-state New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area- GameStop/EB Games stores are getting roughly 6-7 units per week on average. Larger, mall based, stores see up to 10.
The reason behind GS/EB getting such limited supply is due to Best Buy being the largest supplier of PS3s. Initial reports prior to the launch of the console suggested that Best Buy would carry close to half of PS3 shipments for an indefinite amount of time; and that seems like something McNealy didn't take into consideration.
