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Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
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Home » Industry, Nintendo Wii

Nintendo not undershipping Wiis, they’re underbuilding them.

Submitted by on March 29, 2007 – 7:15 pm3 Comments

redsteel-wii-controller.pngIt seems almost too well-timed, but on the heels of some Gamestop schmo saying he thinks Nintendo’s undershipping Wiis on purpose (Gamestop, for those not familiar, is the authority on questionable business practices), Nintendo is apparently reviewing bids from manufacturers other than Foxconn (who makes the Wii for them right now) to take on manufacturing duty so that they can better meet demand.

This comes with a response by NOA’s George Harrison that no, Nintendo is not holding back.

Well, good. I got my Wii last year but it looks like I was pretty lucky. Despite reports that box stores are getting them a hundred at a time or more, smaller retailers (hey, like Gamestop) claim they haven’t been able to scratch together a dozen at a time. Maybe it makes business sense to manufacture the object that people want to buy.

I’ve been thinking about the issue for a while, and wondering how many manufacturers Nintendo had building the system that they couldn’t keep up with a consistently high demand. Now we have that answer. One. Nintendo had one manufacturer building the Wii. It seems kind of contradictory for George Harrison to say Nintendo is not holding back on the Wii when you can’t find one in the store more than four months after launch and they’ve still only got one company making them.

The kindest thing I can say about this is not particularly kind: I guess this is what happens when you’re used to manufacturing for demand that is moderate at best. Zing!

Via NWF.

  • sifer2400

    Kind of sad when you think about there so used to low demand that now they don’t know how to handle high demand lol.

  • exkon

    Makes perfect sense, don’t want to flood the market. Reminds of exactly what’s happening with the Mini coopers, limit the product to keep the market demand high. Basic business economics.

  • Gooble

    Here’s what I think happened.

    Prior to launch Nintendo knew there was a lot of buzz about the Wii and anticipated a high demand. The launch came and went followed by Christmas and the Wii pretty much sold out. Nintendo probably patted themselves on the back for a great launch and for meeting the high demand and expected demand to taper off significantly. Their stocks were pretty much depleted but the slowdown would give them time to replenish.

    Only come the end of January and the demand hadn’t waned. In fact it was about the same as a monthe earlier.

    Nintendo had a decision to make. They could spend vast amounts of capital aquiring more manufacturing capabilites to meet the still-strong demand but eventually demand had to slow and then the added manufacturing costs incurred to meet the demand might exceed the additional revenue. Or they could push as much production out of the existing channels for long enough to meet the strong demand before it tapered off.

    Well, they chose the latter and here it is almost April and the demand seems just as high. It is only now that they are adding additional manufacturing plants and I’ll bet they are kicking themselves for not doing this 2 or 3 months ago.

    I don’t think they anticipated the strong and steady demand for the Wii and it may have cost them. But I don’t know if you can really blame them. They were in uncharted waters and nobody knew what to expect. Plus when you add in the Gamecube’s performance I don’t know if you could blame Nintendo for the miscalculation.