Sony Expects to Resolve PS3 Shortages by May

Sony Corp. is on track to ship 2 million PlayStation 3s to North American stores by the end of March, and expects shortages of the video game console to have completely eased by May, a top executive said on Tuesday.

“April or May is when we feel like we’re going to catch up to demand and have product fully in stock across North America and stay there,” said Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Reuters - Sony expects to resolve PS3 shortages by May

Sony has slowly begun to make up ground, selling some 244,000 units of the PS3 during January. However, it is still far behind Nintendo Wii sales of 436,000 consoles, and slightly trailed the Xbox 360, which tallied sales of 249,000 units. Altogether, Sony expects to ship six million PS3s by the end of March.

Much of the problem, many analysts say, is the PS3’s price. At either $499 or $599 USD, it is $200 more expensive than the Xbox 360, and more than twice the price of the Wii. Additionally, Sony’s arrogance about its product is also an issue among some buyers, they say. While Sony has cut prices in Japan, it has repeatedly said it was satisfied with the price in the United States.

BetaNews - Sony: PS3 Supplies to Improve by May