Nintendo In Competition With Apple for In-Demand Switch Parts

Hope Nintendo can work out some deals for supply. The world wants more Switches!

People love to point the finger at Nintendo but this proves that its not always down to the big N on why expectations of consumers can't be met.

The only thing stopping Nintendo switch is how fast it can be make. If Nintendo managed to make 20 millions by December.20 millions they will sell. Unstoppable at this point.

#artificialdemand

RUMORS!the switch already at 7 millions.

Latest news (rumors) switch already 7 millions.

Companies like Apple out-order Nintendo in huge quantities, so Nintendo will pull the short end of the stick here, hence why supply has been extremely limited so far.
Hell, even accessories like Joy-cons, pro-controller, charge grip, etc is extremely limited and mostly on backorder still.

This supply shortage is definitely going to hurt Nintendo's bottom line this year.

Since I work in the IT, there is currently a similar problem with chips being used in high-end SSD drives that are also being used in mobile phones. China had ordered a huge quantity of those chips and now there is a huge delay in delivery of SSD drives for servers. Both Dell and HP are struggling delivering servers with order delays up to 4-8 weeks currently!

@AlexOlney Its called sarcasm Alex No matter the case someone will say its faked wont they and ooh boy dont they just love it.

@Alexprime Source?

@Masurao huh, didn't know that. It's a shame. I like Toshiba

@BLP_Software Nintendo fabricated the article, they paid WSJ and Toshiba #fakenews

If it's a price war, Apple wins. Consumers won't pay more for a Switch, but the rumors are swirling that the next iPhone will be far and away the most expensive one yet. And people WILL pay $1K for an iPhone 8.

An Apple a day keeps the Switch at bay!

This is bad news as it means that production for Switch is likely to remain constrained and continue the red-light green-light pattern for a long, long time, and there's absolutely nothing Nintendo could do about it no matter how hard they try, if it's component shortage, and much bigger firms in other industries get first pick on the supply.

This also bodes ill for the price of SSDs. A separate but still troubling result. Although there is the one catch, the biggest maker of NAND is Samsung, and neither Nintendo or Apple has an interest in buying from them. Nintendo, a Japanese company, has a built in compulsion not to buy from the Korean giants (a government encouraged compulsion), and Apple is Samsung's main rival in the phone business. Maybe a better article is "NAND in short supply for companies who refuse (or are denied) to do business with Samsung."

Though this is another case where the modern industrial trend of centralization and consolidation in the endless quest for efficiency shows how fragile it is and how it's guaranteed to all fall apart in the worst way at the worst time. Centralizing production to one or two locations by 2 or 3 companies and allowing pretty much everything in the world to hinge around whatever China does has got to be the most idiotic central planning solution since the USSR.

@AirElephant People are even dumber than I'd given them credit for, apparently. For a $1k telephone, I want it to be made of solid 16k gold. #scratchgate

@Masurao Toshiba's problem is their own misorganization and bloat. When was the last time anyone saw Toshiba electronics anywhere? Why are they still even running those divisions that gobble money? Their component/semiconductor business is still booming (as this article even exemplifies with Apple and Nintendo bidding all over each other trying to get access to Toshiba output.) It should be hard to fail when, of all companies, Apple is in a bidding war for your product....yet Toshiba has somehow managed.

Got a feeling Apple might win those negotiations

@NEStalgia Nintendo gets Samdung made RAM...

As I've been saying, the Switch may be out selling the iPad.

Ehh...... It's not a problem until it's officially a problem. Apple aren't out to screw over Nintendo, and from what I can see they have a good relationship as it stands.

Time for nintendo to play a big boy card: tell Apple to back off on production or they'll never make an appstore game ever again! (It won't happen, but wouldn't it be lovely?)

@123akis I believe this is more about how many they can make as opposed to a component/material shortage.

@Alexprime
i don't believe that or its better i say i can't believe that

@crackafreeze They might not need them, but it would be a very large chunk of revenue being missed out on. It's all hypotheticals anyway, nintendo doesn't have the, ahem, testicular fortitude to make a move like that.

Everything Nintendo does is Nintendo's fault, huh?

Haha, that's what you get for using tablet hardware!

Wall Street Journal...

@shani It's about NAND flash memory.
That is not just "tablet hardware".

Sounds like a seller’s market. Who here wants to join me in starting a NAND flash plant? With my experience in teaching elementary age music and collecting graphic novels, I’m sure I have the necessary skills and connections to get this off the ground

This is a great example for what I and some others always said about the NES mini shortage.

A company isn't necessarily "stupid" for not producing enough units of a product that sells well, because producing one thing usually means producing less of another. That other product can be a lot more profitable though...

If that other product is from the same company, then why wouldn't they produce the more profitable one? If it is from another company, like in this case, then the question is which company pays the manufacturers more. The company that can make more profit with the product is able to pay more as well though.

So since we never really know how profitable a product is, it is completely out of place to call any company stupid for what they produce and in what quantities (only as long as the product sells at all of course).
We can only make assumptions here.

@BLP_Software Are they? That's surprising! Which then leads to the question: Why are they NOT sourcing Samsung NAND? Or are they and this is a non-story?

@bluesdance I'm in! I'll pool the $3.6Billion USD that I wish I had as the initial investment!

@shani And not being in a bidding war for in demand state of the art tech for their fast selling console is what Microsoft gets for not using tablet hardware

These sorts of problems are the ones you want to have. Long NTDOY.

@NEStalgia Because Samsung has their own products for their NAND?

@BLP_Software They sell it component. And they probably have a stack of "slightly used NAND" from all those Note 7's they've had to recycle

And where's Micron?

@bluesdance

Great idea! We'll call it Memco!

Who will join us?!

People don't know jack about the realities of manufacturing. This will go in one ear and out the other.

Give it one week, we'll be seeing more comments accusing them of intentional shortages.

Going to be interesting too see if manufacturers can adequately increase production in the near future for parts

People seriously need to get over Apple products, there over hyped and overpriced .

@Masurao auctioning semiconductor? Ouch!

Then again someday well all be laughing when nuclear picks up again. Afraid of it or not, Japan can't go on without it indefinitely unless something magical is invented between now and then.

I'm pretty sure Mako Reactors arent going to happen soon

Their denial will fade quickly when the lights go out.

Hmmm - there is VERY LITTLE specific information on this issue around the Business internet - It may restrict Nintendo a little but it seems that nintendo have been thinking ahead of the game here and unbeknownst to us - has already secured the manufacture of 16-20 million SWITCH units. - The Toshiba chip business IS booming adn the Japanese Government will want to protect that so it is likely that Toshiba will be split before bankruptcy and the Chip division will continue profitably - Never understimate how Banks and Governments and Very Large companies can manipulate their structure. . . . .

You lot will believe anything

I've given up looking for a Switch.

@Masurao It's going to get interesting though. Japan has next to no energy resource supply of their own. Yeah, they shut the reactors down 6 years ago out of caution, and never reactivated them out of public fear/resistance. But Japan is energy-hungry. Half the cities surrounding Tokyo were built up for the sole purpose of supplying power for Tokyo. They've kept the discomfort minimal with only rolling blackouts/temporary company closings during hot months/ etc to try to iron out energy usage. It's working out "ok" due to the low cost for now of crude, but once they have to start supplying that much power via a collection of semi-temporary oil/gas/coal plants burning fossil fuels purchased from overseas as prices increase, they're going to feel a lot of pain. Given the choice between activating reactors (that weren't idiotically built hanging over the ocean....with help from GE...) and frequent blackouts/energy rationing/and electric bills increased in multiples, public resistance against nuclear will at some point (not sure when) decrease substantially, guaranteed. Again, unless viable new tech emerges between now and when supplying all of Japan on oil/gas burners becomes unrealistic.

I have mixed feelings on nuclear myself. The reactors themselves can be perfectly safe (if they're not idiotically built over the ocean...) with proper protections in place. But the waste product....that's a lot more questionable if it's worth it. But in Japan's case due to their space limitations and lack of raw energy fuels domestically (there's a little known war in the 40's they fought stemming largely from that ) they honestly need nuclear more than anywhere else does.

@Masurao Ahh, I hadn't realized the Westinghouse tie-in. Geeze, that's a hot mess.....

@ThatNyteDaez People really have no clue about how their consumer goods are made. The average person seems to think if Nintendo want to make more Switches they just press a button and the Switches appear on our shelves the next day. They completely ignore the realities of business, manufacturing and geography in their eagerness to slam Nintendo every time they can't find something they wanted on the shelves. (I say Nintendo, but you see the same responses with every brand when shortages are experienced.)

@Masurao Yep, that's kind of the timeline I had in mind as well. Dangerous/frightening or not, it's all fun and games until the Puzzles & Dragons device can't be recharged. They'll fire up the reactors when it gets to that.