Here we are once more, one more Christmas and one more deficiency of a novelty. This moment it happens to be the Xbox Kinect. Not only is it lacking but it’s completely sold out. You can’t get it anywhere. Or so they say.
If you completely have to have it you can certainly get it on ebay. The downfall of this angle is that you’re going to be paying between 50-100 dollars more than it’s recorded at. The closer it gets to Christmas the worse this will become. I furthermore comprehend that you can get them on amazon but once again you are going to be paying a great deal more than the list price.
If you’re anything like me than you crave to be familiar with how this is even possible. How can a big establishment such as Microsoft fumble a product launch so severe?
For the last month or so you couldn’t go anywhere without observing something about the Xbox Kinect. It was on billboards, bus stops, radio, internet, celebrity, magazines, and even elfin men parachuting down from the wild blue yonder with Xbox Kinect signed on their foreheads. The amount of money they put into marketing it has to be into the tens of millions.
Why would a company spend that much money and run out? Well I can give you a few reasons. Keep in mind that this is only my private opinion though.
First notion would be that they haven’t run out at all. Like I said at the beginning of this column, this happens each single year with the top rated game. The reason in the rear this means of marketing is reliable. If they can forged a deficit than the hype for their brand will evolve. This hype will continue to abound as long as they command the supply. Unfortunately for us they do control the reserve of goods.
The down side to this approach is that it also drives prices up on sale by bid sites. I kind of view these guys the same way I view ticket scalpers at the ballpark. Have you anytime met a ticket scalper at a ball park? They are a very economically challenged group of individuals. They act as if you are purchasing a pound of the last cocaine on the world. They also look like they should be on the last pound of coke on the world.
The next justification, and this notion is a long shot, is that they truly underestimated the demand of this product. I can comprehend underestimating the demand for a brand. I mean, this is only the most breakthrough gaming system in the planet. I don’t think many folk will want it, especially not right before Christmas.
So what can we, as the consumer, do about this? Nothing, we are pawns in a very complex game that eventually comes down to cash. When you have three very big companies, trying to be the number one gaming merchant in the world, you’re going to see some suspicious strategy.
If you were to ask me, If I were the CEO of Microsoft, would I do anything in another way. I would have to say no. I wouldn’t vary a thing. It may be frustrating to the customer but at the same time we play into it all too well. As long as we proceed to do that, companies will resume to use this against us.
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