In what may come as a double-shock to many people, Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America has told news outlets that "April or May is when we feel like we're going to catch up to demand and have product fully in stock across North America and stay there”, he continued, "Our goal is to fill shelves across the United States. Our goal is not to have empty shelves, it's to have full shelves. If we have empty shelves, that's one less consumer who could have bought a PlayStation 3.”
Shock one is, of course, that it’s been widely reported that there are no shortages of PS3 stock in the USA. The Internet has been rife with ‘information’ that stores are packed with boxes of the console – many being returned consoles that scalpers were unable to sell for massive profit. Tretton could, however, be commenting not on shortages actually in store, but a shortfall on the promised number of ‘shipped’ PS3s.
There is often some confusion between ‘shipped’ and ‘sold’ when it comes to industry announcements – both terms when used in the context of inventory can be confused, The consumer thinks ‘shipped’ means sent from the factory to retail, and ‘sold’ means ‘bought at retail’. The industry thinks ‘shipped’ and ‘sold’ are effectively the same – because no one is going to ‘ship’ a unit to retail unless there is purchase order (and therefore a sale) made.
The fact that there are no totally accurate figures for units sold (or unsold) at retail (even the often quoted NDP statistics are based on samples of two thirds of retail outlets in the US), means that the notion of ‘shortage’ depends on your position in the market: manufacturer, retailer, purchaser.
Working on the principle that Tretton is talking about a shortage of PS3s delivered to match the promise of two-million PlayStation 3s to retailers by the end of March, shock two is that Tretton should come out with an April/May deadline.
Commenting on why he thinks there is a shortage of the consoles, Tretton commented, “It's a testament to the fact that we've been able to manufacture and ship units on a greater pace than any previous console. We're in pretty good shape to do that. The early returns are quite favourable”.
Shock one is, of course, that it’s been widely reported that there are no shortages of PS3 stock in the USA. The Internet has been rife with ‘information’ that stores are packed with boxes of the console – many being returned consoles that scalpers were unable to sell for massive profit. Tretton could, however, be commenting not on shortages actually in store, but a shortfall on the promised number of ‘shipped’ PS3s.
There is often some confusion between ‘shipped’ and ‘sold’ when it comes to industry announcements – both terms when used in the context of inventory can be confused, The consumer thinks ‘shipped’ means sent from the factory to retail, and ‘sold’ means ‘bought at retail’. The industry thinks ‘shipped’ and ‘sold’ are effectively the same – because no one is going to ‘ship’ a unit to retail unless there is purchase order (and therefore a sale) made.
The fact that there are no totally accurate figures for units sold (or unsold) at retail (even the often quoted NDP statistics are based on samples of two thirds of retail outlets in the US), means that the notion of ‘shortage’ depends on your position in the market: manufacturer, retailer, purchaser.
Working on the principle that Tretton is talking about a shortage of PS3s delivered to match the promise of two-million PlayStation 3s to retailers by the end of March, shock two is that Tretton should come out with an April/May deadline.
Commenting on why he thinks there is a shortage of the consoles, Tretton commented, “It's a testament to the fact that we've been able to manufacture and ship units on a greater pace than any previous console. We're in pretty good shape to do that. The early returns are quite favourable”.
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Comments
OptimusP 28 Feb 2007 12:20
1/3
*wonders how much many Tretton had to pay for the "there are no PS3's in stores!!" bet he made*
The real problem is that Sony uses it's shipped numbers as its sold number too much and a lot of people (even Spong) believe that as sold (at retail) numbers while they are in general 20% off at least.
Then you have Nintendo and Microsoft who only announce shipped numbers (in hardware terms) and that's it. They only say sold numbers when the tracking agencies give out some solid numbers.
The real problem is that Sony uses it's shipped numbers as its sold number too much and a lot of people (even Spong) believe that as sold (at retail) numbers while they are in general 20% off at least.
Then you have Nintendo and Microsoft who only announce shipped numbers (in hardware terms) and that's it. They only say sold numbers when the tracking agencies give out some solid numbers.
hollywooda 28 Feb 2007 17:09
2/3
what makes me laugh is they keep putting out comments about "ohh there will be more PS3's on there way in May!!, well make sure there are no shortages!".... there's no where to put the f**king things as it is, the stores have got plenty, you need to sell some first!.....Sony just want to be about to put out another "we've Sold(shipped) 10 million consoles this week!" quote.
actionmonkey 1 Mar 2007 10:40
3/3
I love the way that Sony puts a positive spin on everything. Did anybody here see the film 'The Corporation'? It described how, if you look at a corporation as an individual they display the same traits as a psychopath - because they are legally obliged to return a profit to their shareholders. When things are going well this doesn't show it's self but when things go bad ...
It's probably worth keeping up with the news just to hear the screams as they are flushed down the toilet.
It's probably worth keeping up with the news just to hear the screams as they are flushed down the toilet.