The Wii and the PS3 are impossible to get right now.  Rewind a year, so was the XBox 360, rewind further and so was the PS2 and the Xbox before that.

What is the point of launching to HUGE customer demand with an infinitesimal numbers of units, then spending marketing dollars on top of that, as if you needed to stir up demand?   What is the point of making the launch for the holidays when all you have to offer is a small quantity of units that you would have sold out of anyway?

I'm chewing on the idea that its done on purpose.  Think about it: you have a new console, possibly a new online service, they are almost certainly going to have some bugs at first despite all your testing efforts.  Why not produce only a limited # of consoles so that any errors are caught and fixed in 200,000 consoles instead of 2,000,000 consoles.  The first people to buy are essentially un-paid beta testers. By releasing in such limited quantities, you are also being assured that only the people who want your product very, very badly are going to get it.  No one is going to casually walk in off the street and buy your new console on a whim and be upset.  The guy who camped out in front of best buy to get his new console isn't going to say "screw it" and take it back if it overheats or has some quirks.

Thoughts?