subject: Nintendo 3ds Will Miss The Vacations, But There's A Silver Lining [print this page] After telling the world last March it were built with a 3D, portable game system that didn't require 3D glasses, Nintendo (NTDOY) finally held a conference to announce its release date this morning. The fundamental news could be that the handheld system, the 3DS, would on store shelves in Japan on february 26th and United states prior to a end of March 2011. Unfortunately for Nintendo, the headlines told another story, declaring, regardless, which a delay by Nintendo meant it will miss this year's holiday shopping season.
The odd thing is there's no delay. Off their first announcement instruction online March, which came as the short report possibly directed at jump prior to leaks, Nintendo claimed who's would obtain new machine out by March 2011. So while Nintendo will indeed miss the vacation shopping blitz, it never used to release the product or service before 2011.
M2 Research analyst, Billy Pidgeon, however, thinks the fundamental problem was the announcement rather than the discharge date. "It'd have really pumped the quarter," obtaining 3DS on shelves this christmas, he tells, however the announcement created a demand their marketing wasn't quite ready to treat.
Complicating matters, the same day Nintendo announced the 3DS' release date, it cut its profit forecast with this fiscal year by 55%, citing a stronger than predicted yen, and blaming "the decided release conditions for the Nintendo 3DS." The sales assumptions because of this holidays for the rest of their hardware also took a dive, since sales from the current handheld, the DS, will more than likely suffer now that customers know a better method is just around the corner. None with this contributed to the negative headlines.
But Pidgeon sees a way the spot that the headlines saw madness. He points to Nintendo's traditionally cautious attitude toward its hardware, which it never subsidizes, he admits that, always being confident that to market everything in a profit, including new systems. Even when Nintendo could have pushed the 3DS by the holidays, Pidgeon questions if it might have been less expensive to take action. Instead, he says, Nintendo may very well be "more satisfied putting it out in a slow period," giving retailers to be able to discount the latest DS while clearing space for your new and exciting product to promote during the industry's lean times.
The 3DS defintely won't be cheap either. At 30,000 yen in Japan (about $360), it can be twice the price of an original R4 DSat its launch in 2004 (Nintendo haven't announced prices for The united states or the rest of the world). But, Pidgeon says, the higher tariff of new mobile devices like Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and iPod Touch give Nintendo the area to get more money due to the awesome. He also expects smaller shipments in the beginning, with Nintendo putting out enough 3DS units to the early adopters who won't balk in the price. As manufacturing costs go along, Nintendo Ds R4 can increase shipment and lower the price in time for the next holiday season.
Throwing some cold water on those early headlines, Pidgeon says, "overall, the effect may be positive."
