You know the drill ... the latest gizmo gadget is due out shortly and the geeks are forming a (dis)orderly queue to get their hands on it. The Sony PSP is due out soon (here in the UK) and the XBox 360 will be out a month or so later. Initial supplies are expected to be limited (yada, yada).
Retailers and on-line stores advertise them well before they are out so that you can pre-order them ... but should you?
Here is my thinking:
If I am a retailer and I have 500 units available then I can use these to supply the people who have pre-ordered and then say "sold out" OR I can sell these to new people and have then got 1000 sales instead of 500 (and supply the pre-order people once demand has subdued and more stock has arrived).
Do you think this happens? Am I being too cynical?
Our XBox has a broken HDD and the kids are climbing the walls waiting for me to fix it (which I was planning to do by buying the new one ! ). I don't know whether to just pre-order and wait or try and get one from the shops when they are out. I'm sure a lot of "shortages" are contrived to boost demand.