Besides being infuriated with leaving over a billion dollars on the table this past holiday season, Nintendo of America is also "passionately upset about the lack of product relative to demand." Those words came straight from Mr. Reggie Fils-Aime himself, who noted that North America was the only Wii-serviced territory where supply and demand were still out of sync. Reportedly, some 40-percent of the 1.8 million Wii consoles manufactured each month are making their way over, but even after 17 months on the market, the average Wii sits around on retail shelves for "just an hour before [it is] purchased." Unfortunately, we're no closer to being able to clone the consoles in order to meet the insatiable appetite.

Looks like Dell's run into some issues with its highest end monitor, the droolworthy DisplayPort-packing 30-inch 3008WFP. We heard it'd mysteriously vanished from the site with nary a trace, so we pinged the folks in Round Rock. This is what they had to say:

"The Dell 3008 monitor has been well received since launch and has been very popular with customers. In February we experienced a small technical issue with the product that has been long resolved. [Um, it's only April? -Ed.] Currently the monitors are on extended lead times and in order to manage demand, the 3008 is not available on dell.com. We are managing orders on a prioritized basis and hope to have the product available to all customers in the near future."

So there you go, down but not out. Expect 'em back, um, eventually.

[Thanks, Duane]

The word on the street, nay, the word straight from Jeff Bell's mouth, is that the Xbox 360 is experiencing stock shortages, which could hurt sales for January and February. We'd already heard of Elite shortages, but now they seem to be more widespread. "You could say we misjudged demand," said Bell, head of global marketing for Microsoft games. "We're literally out of stock in many stores. We think this will have an impact on our sales." Apparently the 1.3 million Xboxen sold in December didn't leave many sitting around for the rest of winter, so we could be seeing shortages through February, according to Bell -- but they should be able to meet demand by spring. It almost sounds like Microsoft is playing hard to get like a certain other console we know of, but we'll bite our tongue until we can get a tearful confession out of Major Nelson. Or, you know, two straight years of stock scarcity.

[Via Joystiq]

It's not like you really needed another PSA to reinforce just how difficult getting your hands around a Wii this holiday season will be, but a recent interview with Nintendo of America's marketing chief George Harrison did make mention of that fact. More specifically, he stated that it was "still expecting some shortages in December," but noted that the Big N wouldn't be "pulling back on its marketing." Potentially more interesting is Mr. Harrison's assertion that the firm is currently producing some 1.8 million Wiis per month, and it's having to make decisions of where to send shipments to "nearly every week." 'Course, the chat couldn't end without some reference to the rivals, and the exec concluded by proclaiming that Nintendo "doesn't focus a lot on the competition," as "its performance seems to be independent of those two."

[Via 1UP]

Merely hours after Samsung was staring at "at least" $54 million in losses from an unexpected power outage at its Giheung complex, the firm is now reporting that the half dozen production lines are "fully operational." Moreover, the outfit is now projecting losses to peak at around $43 million, which actually doesn't sound too horrific compared to prior estimates. It was noted, however, that the disruption could extend a shortage of NAND flash memory through "at least the first half of August," and reports are already claiming that prices of select NAND chips have risen "6.3-percent to a record $19.02."

Samsung, the worldwide leader in flash memory production, has been forced to "shut down six of its chip production lines after a power outage occurred at a plant near Seoul," and while recent reports suggest that "operations should be restored within a day," the lasting effects could linger on for quite some time. Reportedly, the outage occurred at Samsung's Giheung complex and disrupted production of flash memory, DRAM, and logic chips, and while this may not sound too significant to the average outsider, estimates are already pegging losses at around $54 million. Notably, Samsung wouldn't say whether or not the hiccup will affect supplies of memory chips to Apple (one of its top customers), but analysts are already purporting that we could see "a severe shortage of NAND chips" and increased prices in the coming weeks.

[Thanks, Patrick M.]

Read - Samsung Electronics chip output hit by power cut
Read - Samsung operations should be restored within a day

We won't bother trying to number crunch how much coin Apple will be laying down if sources at Business Week are right about just how many iPhones will be available to thrill come June 29th, but Cupertino better hope this thing takes off a tad quicker than the iPod did in 2001. Two separate sources have apparently noted that Apple will have a whopping three million iPhone units ready at launch, which should (if true) quell looming any shortage fears right off the bat. Interestingly, several analysts have predicted that the firm will only move about that many units this entire year, but we're sure Apple won't be complaining if any more iPhones are necessary to quench 2007's demand. Here's to hoping this Rev. A iPhone was thoroughly scrubbed for bugs beforehand, or else Steve & Co. could be dealing with quite a hefty basket of recalled Apples.

[Via AppleInsider]

Apparently, we should all feel incredibly guilty for simply using our cellphones, as not only are we encouraging the growth of ear tumors within our bodies, but now we're hearing that radiation flying out from our mobiles are demolishing the world's supply of crops. All jesting aside, a controversial report is now claiming that "radiation from mobile phones are interfering with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving (and pollinating) species from finding their way back to their hives." The comically-named Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is reportedly being seen on a much larger scale in the US and Europe, and elusive "evidence" is purportedly backing these dodgy claims up. Backers of the shocking data are even going so far as to suggest that in the future, our refusal to set aside the cellphone could cause "massive food shortages as the world's harvests fail." Man, this sounds worse than Y2K, for sure.

[Via Slashdot]

While Nintendo's Wii has been the undisputed champ of at-launch availability so far, and looks to be well on the way to its projected 4 million sales by the end of the year, supply problems are starting to crop up in Europe. Apparently Nintendo hasn't yet shipped the full quantities it has promised to some retailers, which naturally doesn't sit too well with pre-order customers. Hopes are high for getting the rest of those pre-ordered Wiis by Christmas, but that's little consolation to the fanboys hoping to get their European Wii on by December 8th. Non pre-order customers pretty much don't stand a chance, and we're just hoping this doesn't all end in tears, PS3 style.

If you haven't managed to procure a good, solid pre-order yet from a credible retailer, you just might want to take a good hard look at those unboxing pics we shared last night, 'cause it could very well be as close as you're getting to a PlayStation 3 in 2006. See, despite Sony's repeated reductions to the launch quantity predictions, EA thinks they're still "exaggerating" a bit, and we might actually end up with around 500,000 to 800,000 units by year's end in North America -- as opposed to the 1-1.2 million currently being predicted by Sony. Sure, we would figure Sony would know its own numbers better than anyone else, but it also has the greatest motive to "exaggerate," and we're sure EA has plenty of insider info of its own. For our part, we're relatively certain Sony will have 14-17 of these things ready by November 17th. Maybe.

[Via Joystiq]

After seeing their precious PlayStation 3 launch number ravaged by component shortages and manufacturing woes, we thought our Japanese neighbors could finally feel confident in the paltry 100k share they'd been promised by Sony last month, but it looks like they've been betrayed once again. Turns out that Sony will only have 80k of the elusive PS3s prepped by the November 11th for the Japanese launch, due to another component woe. With pretty much every available pre-order slot in the country already snapped up by next-gen hopefuls, and even some of those orders on the fritz, it looks like the best chance you'll have to get the console in The Land of the Rising Sun next month will be to line up outside a non-pre-order retailer and hope for the best. Dress warm!

[Via Joystiq]

Okay, considering there's already some crazy things happening on eBay, and knowing full well that PlayStation 3 consoles will undoubtedly be a hot commodity in a few short long weeks, you might just need to reevaluate those plans of waltzing into your favorite game shop on November 19th and leaving happy. Nintendo's Wii isn't that likely (right?) to be sold out everywhere come launch week, but for those who don't enjoy pressing their luck (or camping out in the cold), American GameStop's are indeed accepting pre-orders starting tomorrow, while Canadian venues start October 16th. We had good suspicion that things would pan out this way, and our pals at Joystiq are now reporting that GameStop newsletter subscribers have just received official word that $50 will quasi-guarantee you a shiny white box come launch day -- but only one unit per "household" can supposedly be claimed, and the company even warns that allocations are likely to vanish "within minutes." We weren't counting on this year's "budget console" playing hard to get, but if all these sudden reports of imminent scarcity are eventually proven accurate, maybe getting your name on that list wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

[Via Joystiq, thanks to everyone who sent this in]