Posted on Thursday, August 31 2006 @ 15:36 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
X-bit labs
claims Sony may lower the amount of PS3 consoles to be available this year in half:
Due to the fact that mass production of Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console has not yet started, SCEI is likely to reduce the targeted number of PS3s to be shipped from 4 million to 2 million units in 2006. This will catalyze shortages of the game machine across the world and may allow Sony’s rivals, particularly Microsoft and Nintendo, to sell more consoles during the Holiday season later this year.
Sony promised to have 2 million PlayStation 3 consoles available during the launch window and ship 4 million PS3s worldwide by the end of 2006. By March 2007 the company plans to supply 6 million game consoles to the market.
But makers in China and Japan are still preparing for volume production of the PS3 and there is a short supply of blue laser diodes, a key component of Blu-ray disc (BD) pick-up heads, and Cell processors, according to a news-story at DigiTimes web-site, which cites its sources as saying that the circumstances may cut in two the total expected shipment amount for November and December.
