Exactly...in one year the Wii has already outsold the 360, which has been out for 2 years now. What is Nintendo supposed to do, buy/build 10 factories to meet demand and then have empty buildings when they're no longer needed? No one expected the Wii to do this well, not even Nintendo.

I still remember all the ridicule Nintendo faced before launch. I'm guessing it's the same people who were saying the Wii would be a huge flop that are now complaining about shortages.

Nintendo has taken reasonable steps to increase production, rerouting shipments to meet demand, and while it certainly benefits them to have a product in high-demand, it doesn't benefit them if they don't have consoles to sell to customers that want them.

I'm sure Nintendo would rather have enough consoles to sell since, you know, that's how they make money. It doesn't generate any profit when a customer can't buy a Wii. And if they don't have a Wii, then they're not buying remotes, nunchuks, or games either.

It would be foolish for Nintendo to intentionally limit supply a year after launch. If there are actually shortages during the Holiday season, it hurts Nintendo in both the short and long term (customers who can't find a Wii might get a 360 instead, costing Nintendo future software and accessory sales). If there aren't any shortages, then this might just be sneaky marketing.

To pull music off your ipod:

ephpod

Don't have the link handy...

Decided to try out a Sansa e250, wasn't impressed. It read tag information incorrectly on random songs (say 11 songs on a ripped CD would show correctly and 1 or 2 would not), there was a fairly loud pop noise whenever it transtioned from one song to the next (both on shuffle and normal play), and the startup time (when it would refresh the database) was longer than I'm used to with my ipod.

I'm not bashing Sandisk or anything, but aside from the "pop" noise, which may have been a malfunction unique to that unit, there were still two inconveniences that I do not experience with an ipod. If I have to go in and massage my mp3 tags so that songs will show up where they're supposed to (under the appropriate album/artist), then I don't care if it has an FM receiver and voice recorder.

Unfortunately, even the final rejection can be appealed...is it just me or does it seem like there should be another name for it, since it's not really final. Maybe we have to wait for the "super-final," "really we mean it this time final," or just "final final" rejection.

I can understand the judge's position that at the time of the jury verdict, RIM was infringing, so damages should be awarded on those grounds. However, to issue an injunction at this point, especially in light of the shaky ground the patents are on, seems fairly stupid.

And for those railing against RIM, remember that it was NTP that decided that $450 million was not enough. This could all have been settled long ago, but for greed. As much as I can see the fairness in NTP receiving the initial damage figure after the original trial, I really hope they get nothing at this point.

No matter how much money RIM has, it is a corporation with employees, manufacturing costs, advertising costs, etc. It's not a handful of people sitting on piles of cash ala Scrooge McDuck. NTP is a couple of people sitting on some patents. To try and milk more than $450 million is, while understandable from a greedy bastard perspective, just ludicrous.

Yeah, better to let them burn to death stuck inside the building, you know, the old-fashioned way...

Ken,

LOL...that's funny as hell, I'm going to have to borrow that...