Microsoft's next-gen console remains ever elusive creating tight supply situations across North America. Microsoft spokespersons have maintained that they have underestimated demand and have adjusted their manufacturing plans to accomodate the supply problems. This is a such a serious problem for Microsoft that as long as store shelves stay empty, the less effective the head stead the Xbox 360 has on Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's 'Revolution'.

In the short term, prospects don't look good. Microsoft initially hoped to have shipped as many as 3 million systems by the end of February. But by the end of the year, Microsoft had shipped only about 1 million worldwide (about 800,000 to the USA and 100,000 each to Europe and Japan), according to estimates from analyst Michael Pachter with investment firm Wedbush Morgan Securities.

The NPD Group estimates that Microsoft sold 600,000 systems from Nov. 22 to Dec. 31. In comparison, it sold 1.4 million of the original Xbox systems in the first two months of 2001. "That was a new brand, and certainly now that it's established with a very loyal following and given the amount of hype and buzz they created, that is one barometer of what possibly could have been," says NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

Xbox likely to stay scarce into spring [USA Today]