Here we go, cak, I’ll take care of this analysis :)
There are no actual statistics, hypeserver. Obviously they companies don’t want to disclose it, they gain no advantage by doing so, so why would they? In fact it’s a competitive disadvantage if they share it. Thus all the numbers being passed around are speculation at best, but some of which is pretty close to true. To start, we know the Wii posts a profit per unit sold, unlike the PS3 which costs Sony more than they make (it’s always the case with PlayStations, they have advanced technology thus Sony has to subsidize it, it was the same thing with PS2, in this gen it’s the Blu-ray player, here are more numbers from back in 2006), and the Xbox360 which while it might have been able to start making profit per console (back in 05 they were losing about $125 per unit), the Red Ring of Death and other faulty hardware fiascoes have long since killed any profit they’re making. The most recent external analysis regarding the Wii’s production cost, based by looking at the cost of the components, is $92. Sadly we can’t look at any of the actual core data fueling these reports, it’s produced by Merril Lynch analysts and thus you need to pay to access it.
To answer the original question, it’s in Nintendo’s advantage to have a firm control over the amount of Wiis they put on the market. I mean, look at where it’s gotten them: it’s been THREE YEARS since the console was launched, yet it’s still a hard to find item this holiday! Never before has a console ever been in such high demand for such a long time. If they had boosted the production of their factories back last year, for example by having a night shift, there would not be such a high demand this holiday season as more people would have bought Wiis during the year. I’ve read articles where the CEOs discuss how they have increased production, but they just can’t keep up with the demand without building entire new facilities. And there’s nothing stopping them from doing just that (well now there is, the economy). In reality though, they’re quite happy where they are right now. Is it a conspiracy? No, it’s just them doing business the way they choose to.