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Celestica phases out BlackBerry-related production for RIM
If you were looking for signs of a turnaround in BlackBerry market share through the production chain, you'll unfortunately have to keep looking. One of RIM's manufacturers, Celestica, is planning to phase out its production for the smartphone maker through the next three to six months. The contractor is expecting a relatively small cost of no more than $35 million US. Despite the apparent hit, the departure isn't necessarily a sign of mounting trouble for Waterloo: RIM already said that it wanted to streamline its processes to save money, and consolidating its production efforts certainly fits the bill. We'd expect any bounce back in manufacturing levels to come nearer to the BlackBerry 10 launch, when the company hopes to widen its audience once again.
MS loses 360 manufacturer
According to a recent article on DigiTimes, a manufacturing company by the name of Wistron will discontinue is production of the Xbox 360 in 2008. The reasons for this are cited as declining profits on manufacturing the Xbox 360 and Microsoft's new manufacturing relationship with Celestica. According to TeamXbox, Wistron has been manufacturing Xbox 360s since the system's launch.Our tipster suggests the discontinuation may have something to do with the Xbox 360 Elite beginning its manufacturing run. We're not manufacturing industry experts, so we'll leave the speculating to our readers.[Thanks, KilgoreTrout XL]
Over a million 360s per month by end of '06
Winstron, one of Microsoft's three manufacturing partners (in addition to Flextronics and the recently recruited Celestica) has announced they will be roughly tripling their production capacity to "reach a capacity of one million units per month by the end of the year." With all three partners pumping out 360s, Microsoft's manufacturing troubles will seem like a thing of the past come holidays '06. With Sony's PlayStation 3 due to launch in November, Microsoft's major tactical advantage (in addition to polished, second-wave titles) will be an abundance of consoles. With Sony facing a worldwide launch, with a technologically impressive system, they face the same risk Microsoft is just now overcoming: shortages. When little Billy wants next-gen gaming, Mom and Dad might see the possibly cheaper and readily available Xbox 360 as an adequate substitute. Who knows, maybe little Billy won't even mind so much when he's playing Gears of War or Too Human.
