Blog break time

I still can’t get over how fumbled the Xbox 360 launch becomes, every day, news about new shipments, new factory lines, more Taiwanese Xbox 360 chip orders, things-are-getting-better-just-you-wait blah blah blah. And then eternal news about re-launches in various parts of the world, meanwhile (still after all this time) no one in Peoria can get one…

All the while the Peter Moore’s, Annonying Nelson’s and John Porcaro’s and other marketing fuzzballs are beach-balling on like nothing amiss. I do notice that John Porcaro stopped blogging, heat got too hot in kitchen, I assume.

So good supply, 2 years from launch…about when Vista hits, is when supply of Xbox 360′s can even meet old (and now waning) demand? The hardcores just waiting for Halo 3, but another shortage then, when a run on the bank.

From the stating-the-obvious-dept:
“It wasn’t a great lift-off” – Yasuyuki Saito.

Christopher: store managers are telling me there’s even more demand and more sales now than there was in Christmas. Their shipments are getting much larger, Best Buy in Milpitas told me, but the units are still selling out within a day.

So, maybe we’ve increased supply but didn’t account for increased demand?

hi scoble

im number 2 hot blog

can i get some respect

btw, i came up here to read about xbox.

also: do you know anything about age of empires?

@27. I know this is a foreign concept to you, scoble, but do you have data to back up your “increased demand” contention? Or are you basing this on purely anecdotal data? How many store managers were part of your scientific statistical survey? Or, again, is this just based on random conversations?

Geez! And you want journalist fired for not checking facts?

How much larger is larger, compared to launch shipments? 10? 20? 50? 100?

Again, I know you are on record as saying this is not a nubmers game, but… I have a hard time believing heresay.

Dmad: I was very specific about where I got this. Two store guys. One in Bellevue. One in Silicon Valley. Do you read carefully or do you just look for every opportunity to take a shot at me?

@30, so, you could have just said:”based on my two anecdotal pieces of evidence, I wonder if demand is increasing?” Instead you state it as some sort of fact. I ‘m sure Chris could go to two stores, one in Peoria and one in Milwaukee and conclude that supply is still a problem. That, too, would be anecdotal. All I’m saying is, when you try to defend your employer, get some solid facts behind your postion. And be honest and avoid the hyperbole. Another example: “Tablet PC are taking off! MS has sold a million and counting!” Well, is that a million this year? Or a million since 2002? Either way that’s a very very low number, given how long Tablets have been around, and compared to laptop and PC sales. A rational person would conclude the Tablet is having problems getting traction in the market.

Hey Robert,

I just wanted to applaud you for refraining from the “fake”, timed post thing while you’re taking a (much needed) break. I despise the concept of queuing up a bunch of posts for timed publication to make it seem like the poster is “there”, but they are *not* available for a true, two-way (multi-way) “conversation”.

You have my permission to take as many “blog” breaks as you want, as often as you want, and for as long as you want.

– Jack Krupansky

Dmad: I said “maybe.” That wasn’t a statement of fact. But thanks for reading carefully.

@34. No, actually you said “store managers are telling me there’s even more demand and more sales now than there was in Christmas”.
So, based on your last comments, this is only TWO store managers.

Obviously there are more sales because they are getting more stock in. If I only got 1 in Dec and got 2 in March, OF COURSE I would have more sales. Regardless of demand. Not sure how these two store managers are measuring demand, except maybe getting whined at more.

Then you followed it up by saying:”maybe we’ve increased supply but didn’t account for increased demand?”

Grammatically, the “maybe” applied to “increased supply” (which would be a pull back from previous positions). “Increased demand” was not qualified as ‘maybe’, based on your previous paragraph.

Glad I could help!

Christopher, I’ve taken the liberty of running your posts through a semantic parser, and this is what I came up with:

$#%^*&!

Hey DMad,

Don’t be an ass.

Scoble was making an observation which was that XBox 360s are still being sold out despite higher supply. This is base on 2 facts: Microsoft is making and distributing more units and stores are still selling out. This combined with the general buzz around the gaming community implies that there is a higher demand. Which makes sense considering that the launch titles were not great.

Just because he doesn’t have 30 pages of research and facts doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

BTW: I’m sorry you hate Microsoft so much, with the exception of Scoble here, their actually pretty nice and have a much better understanding of their customers than you think.

Hello, if I hear of chickens me badly the bird flu to have we of China get now the Chinese to have from the USA google gotten. Unfortunately neither of them gives a vaccine, unfortunate or for. I would like to mention still one the bird flu to have we soon in the grasp

Was that Maryam? Never seen her on video before; geez her voice is squeaky. Congrats on the X2.

Taking blog breaks is very necessary if you want to rethink your approach and strategy. Enjoying your blog and contribution to the blogosphere, look forward to your return.

Looks like the Origami is a little too “advanced” for the average CEO

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200604/kt2006041317503911780.htm

In fact, the new PC proved to be too revolutionary, enough to baffle the three firms’ executive officers who publicly tried to demonstrate how to use it.

During Wednesday’s news conference at Grand InterContinental in southern Seoul, some 30 reporters gathered to watch the much-hyped product named Q1, or Ultra Mobile PC. Kim Hun-soo, vice president of Samsung’s PC division, first ascended to the podium as he tried to do the presentation in a Steve Jobs style _ which was not so successful.

XBox! I still can’t get enuff of my old N64. God they made some great 3D games for that system, especially considering the age. Hmm, Mario 64, the Zelda games (especially the Ocarina of Time). I am readdicted to that system as of the other day.

Manuel said: “Hello, if I hear of chickens me badly the bird flu to have we of China get now the Chinese to have from the USA google gotten. Unfortunately neither of them gives a vaccine, unfortunate or for. I would like to mention still one the bird flu to have we soon in the grasp”

Ummm. What?

God – I remember when I was in line to get N64 when it was released. LOL.

DA,

That article on the Origami presentation was hilarious. Thanks for posting it.

Robert, why are people supposed to buy that thing again?

Wow, Robert really is taking a vacation. Are you feeling ok Christopher Coulter, kinda lonely now eh?

@37 Whether he likes or not, Scoble speaks for Microsoft by the mere fact that’s he’s advertised himself as an MS employee. He puts forth that he’s running around getting everyone that reads his blog the real story. I now have no idea when he’s telling me facts or telling me his opinion based on anecdotal information. Seems he wants it both ways. Should we believe him when he tells us over 1MM Tablets have been sold, or is this just his opinion? Should we believe him when he tells us some percentage of Vista code is not being rewritten because he “talked to a bunch of Vista devs” or is this just his observation? Again, whether he likes it or not, when he posts anything remotely related to MS, he is speaking for MS. As such, he better have his facts straight, or risk losing even more credibility.

For example, based on the random two stores I visited in the past couple of weeks, one in Miami and one in Phoenix, supplies are no different than they were in November. So, demand still exceeds supply. I don’t think logic tells you that demand has increased. Demand has always been there. There’s really no good way to measure if demand has increased if supplies have only increased marginally. My point is, Scoble’s XBOX posts are based on his limited observations and nothing more. Until we see numbers, for every anecdotal data point that may suggest supplies and/or demand has increased, I can come up with an equal number of anecdotal data points that disprove his.

Dmad: I never claimed my post about the Xbox selling was anything more than based on limited data. I think it’s funny that you’re going around making a federal case about it. I was very clear about what I was seeing. But, it sure got your goat. What, do you work for Sony?

J. Random: you’re not supposed to. I’m buying one. Why? Cause I want to put it on my car’s dashboard and hook a GPS up to it.

Rae said: “God – I remember when I was in line to get N64 when it was released. LOL”

Yep. Good times indeed.