[ # ] Expect Wii Shortage to Continue Through Christmas

/* Posted July 25th, 2008 at 9:48am */
/* Filed under DS, Nintendo, Wii, iPhone */
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people waiting in line for wii at tru

It’s no secret that the Nintendo Wii is winning the console sales war domestically and internationally with almost 30 million sold worldwide. Even today, a Wii can be very hard to come by as consumers continue to snap them up as soon as they hit store shelves. The worst part? Don’t expect it to get any better. According to Nintendo CEO Sotaru Iwata in a recent Forbes interview:

We are really intending to increase the shipments to the U.S., especially compared to last year. However, I can’t give you a 100% commitment [that you'll be able to find a Wii this holiday season]. What I can commit myself to is that Nintendo is going to do its best to supply as many Wii hardware units as possible in order to meet demand there.

What he’s diplomatically trying to say is that you can expect the Wii shortage to continue through the major shopping season to come at the end of the year. So if you were planning on buying a Wii to give as a gift this Christmas, I’d suggest you better start hunting now. Buying a Wii casually isn’t the way to go. To get a Wii, you’ll need to hustle if only for one day. Many major retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us often leak advance copies of their Sunday ads. Scour them for any Wii news (usually it will say something to the extent of “minimum X per store”). This means that on Sunday, if you wait in line reasonably early, you will be able to buy a Wii. All the retailers usually get their shipments from Nintendo around the same time, so you can be sure if one retailer is selling that Sunday, the others will be too. If you’re willing to wake up just a bit earlier on the right Sunday, a Wii can be had without much trouble.

In related news, we recently speculated on whether the introduction of the newest Apple iPhone 3G with the App Store’s potential for gaming would affect the Nintendo DS market share. Iwata, an iPhone user himself, also addressed this in the same interview:

I use the iPhone myself. I know that it’s an attractive product, but when I look carefully at the iPhone’s users vs. the users of our Nintendo DS, I understand there are some overlaps. And if you ask ‘Is the overlap too big?,’ my answer is no, not so much.

Looks like Iwata isn’t very phased by the iPhone as a potential competitor and I’m going to have to agree with him.

Image/Flickr/Chickpea