Just about every retailer in the UK has now sold out of their intial allocation of Kinect units which is rather interesting as, hidden in the depths of the Internet, I found this little nugget of information:
Taiwan-based optical lens maker Newmax Technology has become the only supplier of camera modules used in Microsoft Kinect sensors and will ship as many as 14 million units of these modules in 2010, according to industry sources.
It would be a safe bet to assume Microsoft have not suddenly ordered 14 million units last week and they must of taken delivery of some of the cameras by now. Let’s say Microsoft have only received half of the cameras,  that means there are, potentially, 7 million Kinects – why have stores run out? Difficulty keeping up with manufacturing process? Delivery issues? We wonder.
On a side note, some local Game stores are still making the guarantee that if you pre-order now, you will get your Kinect before Christmas.
Source: Digitimes
Soild_Nat
Shipping and selling are two different things. I think Sony have done a little bit of this with the Move figures, didn’t they sell 1.5m in Europe and ship 2m in America?
Anyway i reckon a lot of shops will be saying they are out of stock to see what the reaction to it is, if its good they will suddenly be in stock at certain times creating demand and hype, this will almost certainly guarantee a surge of sales as people fight to get one for xmas day, on the other hand if its not popular they will drift back into stock without much of an announcement and the discounts/bundles will start from boxing day!
carson321
exactly what i was thinking!!
RadicalMave07
those sly bastards;-)
Jaffa-the-Cake
If you say you have limited stock of a product you can charge more for it as it is percieved as being rare and so a bigger deal is made about a store having some left so they hike the price up. This is exactly what Nintendo did with the wii when it first came out, it’s just good business sense on the part of the retail chains e.g Game
stueeeee
Are you sure you aren’t a big boss from GAME?…
Raen
Well if they’re selling out of 7 million they may just not be able to keep up with demand, which I guess is a minor issue but did wonders for the Wii and was something that Sony wanted to happen for the PS3.
cc_star
Getting really hard to get hold of a Kinect now
Have seen prices of £240 on Amazon, now that Amazon themselves have long since sold out and they’re relying on Marketplace sellers.
Great sales will equal great 3rd party support which will equal even greater sales which will equal even greater 3rd party support – a critical mass could quite easily form.
YOURMUMANDME
This is a classic case of sales technique, I do it every day and you see people at the markets doing it everytime you’re there.
“Right, here’s our fantastic new model, it does everything you want but before I start selling I’ll just find out how many we have….. “what was that Terry ? We’ve only got 15 ? Ok” right then guys who wants one first ?”
Show them something they want then take it away and they’ll want it even more…
bunimomike
Like a stripper behind safety glass. *reaches for dollar bills*
Tuffcub
Bunny!!
bunimomike
Sorry. I meant bunny-girl.
dude90
I could probably see Xboxes crashing when Kinect launches :)
Juelz345
I could probably see a pointless post on a website from someone who apparently takes pleasure in other peoples misery…:)
ghost5
If the Taiwan-based company is shipping 14 million cameras to Microsoft then the equates to 7 million Kinects as there are 2 cameras in each one.
jayjay119
This is what I thought, or is it just 2 lenses?
Phizzy
One 24-bit colour VGA camera for the RGB image output, one 16-bit monochrome camera for the depth detection and an infrared projector that the monochrome camera works with. Wouldn’t be surprised if this causes certain IR-based devices to go a bit mental, as Sony said their 2001 eyetoy-based 3D camera tech (which used almost exactly the same technology) did.
Erroneus
Damn people are sheep’s. Again it sadly proves, if MS throws enough money at PR hype, people cash in.
solidsteven
I thought that i had smashed every unit up.:P
MS will have a hard time selling it to the hardcore crowd.
Gaztee
But they are not aiming for the hardcore, at least not yet!
fps_d0minat0r
their pre-order quotas a full but there will not have been that many.
when a product is in short supply, news goes around quicker that its sold out so on launch day people go to shops and thats when they take out the remaining stock.
the hype of short supply (making people assume there is large demand) leads to higher sales than if they had not put a limit on pre-orders.
basic marketing strategy.
iGoThud
LOL! Lets see!
“…camera modules used in Microsoft Kinect sensors” and “…will ship as many as 14 million units of these modules in 2010”
I read nothing here that says 14 million Kinect sensors have been shipped! I do read that the company that makes a camera for the Kinect sensor WILL ship 14 million units in 2010. The sensor still needs to be put together. Not uncommmon for the manufacture to have in stock a massive number of parts to build the final product.
Charmed_Fanatic
LOL