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Microsoft Reveals 360 Shortage Reason
Matt writes "In a recent interview Steve Ballmer has been quoted as saying that the shortages everyone is experiencing are simply down to lack of chips because of low yields - they even considered delaying the launch because of it. In the end they decided to push on and just try and get as many consoles out there as possible." From the article: "Repeating the company's official line on the shortage crisis, which is now threatening to entirely undo Microsoft's attempts to win the next generation war, Ballmer said, 'We are making more. All stores are getting new units each week. Can we make as many as people want? The answer is no, but not because we don't want to.'"
They probably had to drop one vendor for power supplies, or at least kill a batch of bad supplies from their inventory. You'd think they might have delays while repacking some boxes still in warehouses.
Lets see here....
Who is making the chips???
IBM? Correct?
Think this is IBM's way of getting back at M$ for buying "licenses" from SCO?
Fun to think about....
Since this is the official Microsoft version, I know which one I believe.
MS wanted to release this season so they could capitalize on having the Xmas season all to themselves and jump on as much early marketshare as possible in the next-gen console wars. Next Xmas will be too late. All three consoles will be available and it will be a free-for-all at retail. Thier window of mega-opportunity is right now, and they are failing to maximize on it.
Now the $500 purchases that would have gone to MS are now being spent on other gifts (not necessarily console related) and come January, people are going to be worrying about paying off holiday bills, not spending even more. How much in sales, and more importantly marketshare, have they thrown right out the window simply by not having an adequate supply?
Microsoft is all about ubiquity, not scarity. Having consumers not being able to buy however much MS product whenever they want is totally counter to thier MO. The admission by Ballmer about poor yields as quite telling. Publicly, they are disappointed. Behind the scenes, they are probably furious and ready to vomit with rage. The supply issues may not be thier fault, but that doesnt lessen the damage...
Preface: I love the PowerPC.
Okay, so, Microsoft is having problems getting chips. Don't know exactly which chips, but I'm going to make an educated guess and say it's those spiffy new powerpc chips.
Sorta makes Steve Jobs look somewhat less irrational, doesn't it? If Microsoft can't get all the chips it needs for something they're spending billions on, how on earth is Apple expected to?
That being said, I wish somebody- Motorola, IBM, whomever- had gotten their act together and come out with PowerPC chips that could compete in the (irrational) battleground that Intel laid out.
stored on computers from birth to the grave
One issue may be that they can't bin the cores or GPUs.
(For those unfamiliar with binning: With your general-purpose parts, any chip that can't run at, say, 2.4GHz gets tested at 2.2GHz. If it passes at that speed, it gets labeled "2200" instead of "2400", and doesn't go to waste. The only chips that are completely rejected are the ones that can't pass at the minimum spec'd speed.)
In the case of a game console, there's no "range" of chip speeds. There is one fixed target clock speed, so the final test is a strict pass/fail.
The typical pattern for a new chip design is for the lower clock speed parts to arrive first. It takes a while for the fabs to work out the kinks that keep the top-speed yields low. Since the X360's core and GPU chips are custom designs, it's no surprise that it's taking a while to ramp up production.
It's easy to pick on Microsoft, especially in these here parts, but look at the evidence. Overheating power supplies, low chip yields, Perfect Dark Zero discs being pressed before the game was certified...
"Deadline or Bust" == Bust.
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Well my idea of Christmas-ish time is a little different thant the commercial one. I don't even think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. That's just me and my view of things, and so feel free to disagree with it.
On the other hand, marketing tactics are almost always rumors even after the marketing drive is over. No company like to say why they did it because nobody wants to feel like the sucker for buying into someone else's ploy. From any reasonable business standpoint (note the word reasonable, I'm not saying there isnt' any other answer. And nobody's really said anything contrarily logical yet), no company would want to half-ass a product launch from a shortage. It's almost always better to wait and do things right when you still have a roughly six month window to establish yourself too firmly for the next competitor to throw you off.
And honestly: No, it's not because it's Microsoft that I am hesitant about the 360. To tell the truth, I like how the 360 looks so far, but $400 for a system when my expectations for a console aren't as high as yours. Most current console/portable games have disappointed the hell out of me, and I'm hoping that '3rd-gen' can bring something with more substance than another 90 Madden titles and rehashed FPS'. Call me jaded if you will, but I'm just trying not to buy the system that's over-loaded with unoriginal garbage for games after it's first year.
Besides, I still have a small monster of a gaming PC with no lack of good games for it. So while I wait and see what looks good, I have things to keep me entertained.
Perfecting Discordia
www.stevenvansickle.com