Wii!

I bought two new pieces of consumer technology this weekend.  One, I returned.  The other is now on display in the middle of my living room.

I bought an iPhone from the Apple store on Friday night right after 9 pm.  I cancelled the next morning given that it would take 2 - 4 weeks to ship and they're readily available at all six Apple stores near me.  Plus as predicted all is not going smoothly with activations.

On the other hand, I decided it was time for a Wii.  The last console I owned was an Atari 2600 (not counting my PSP).  I thought that enough time had passed since the Holiday 2006 shortage and I could just walk in to any big box retailer and buy one.  Wrong.

How can you get one? I think your best bet is to call your local electronics retailer and find out what day they usually get stock.  You can call the night before, usually after 6 pm, to find out if they actually have any to sell the next day.  If so, show up early and queue; the numbers I hears were typically 4 - 7 units per store.  BTW we found a Best Buy that's newly opened - it's on the bestbuy.com site but not listed in general searches like Google Maps - that helps too.

Kind of backwards...but makes me wonder.  Maybe Apple/AT&T should have staggered the release of iPhone supply in order to stretch out demand, increase desirability, and better handle system loads...

Comments

[Drew McLellan]

Pete,

We just got a WII and half my family is sporting WII injuries from crouching in a batting position for too long or twisting too hard to find the right angle.

That's how realistic the game is. We're loving it. How about you?

And the consumer interface is really nicely done.

Drew

[Pete]

LOL yes! We have a case of tennis elbow and another of strained ligaments. I had to bench myself in the 3rd inning of my softball game the evening after we got it because my arm was blown out...