With the severe shortage of Sony PlayStation 3 consoles, some analysts don't expect these shortages to ease until March, going by c|net. However, as Sony is set to launch its PS3 in Europe around March, this will potentially further limit its supply to the US, which could result in shortages for a much longer duration, such as up to June according to the American Technology Research analyst Paul-Jon McNealy.
When PS3 shipments do arrive at retail outlets such as GameStop, Target and Best Buy, the number of units vary from 1 to 25 with shoppers grabbing the consoles the moment they arrive. According to an Angeles GameStop employee, they get a new supply of just 1 to 2 PS3 consoles every 1.5 weeks. However, with good supply of the PS2 and it selling over 106 million units globally to date, compared with the PS3's target of 1 million by the year end, the PS2 is expected to remain a top seller during this Christmas season.
From what I can see, with the major issues and delays Blu-ray has caused for the PlayStation3, Sony would likely have sold many times more consoles had they initially released its PS3 and games using the existing DVD standard and around the time of the Xbox 360 launch. For example, they could have then offered a Blu-ray add-on drive, games on Blu-ray and PS3’s with Blu-ray built in later on once the development, shortage and pricing issues have been overcome.
