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That’s the buzz going around based on an article by Dean Takahashi at the Mercury News:
The shortage of Xbox 360 video game consoles that left many holiday shoppers in angst was due in part to Microsoft’s decision to use a new kind of memory chip from a German company, Infineon Technologies, according to people who are familiar with the game box’s design.
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One of two companies supplying the Xbox 360’s storage memory chips, Infineon, has had trouble making enough of the chips at the right speed for the game console that debuted last November, according to the sources. As a result Microsoft has not been able to meet the demand for the console.Peter Moore, head of Microsoft’s game division, declined to comment on whether there was a memory chip shortage. He blamed the scarcity of 360s on “component shortages”‘ but refused to pinpoint the problem.
More details on the problem by following the link, but it required hand sorting of memory chips to weed out those not up to spec.
Whatever the reason, there’s good news on the way according to Moore:
Regarding shortages, he said, “Within the next four to six weeks, anybody will be able to walk into a store and buy an Xbox 360.”
