Microsoft reported better than expected earnings yesterday, and surprised some analysts with higher than expected sales of the Xbox 360. Microsoft's original sales forecasts were greatly altered when confronted with a widespread, and continuing, production shortage. To date, they have sold 1.5 million consoles; 900,000 in North America, 500,000 in Europe, and 100,000 in Japan.
For every console sold, they also sold four games and three accessories, a pretty high attach rate that is sure to decrease when more mainstream gamers purchase the system. The Xbox division lost $293 million for the quarter, versus a profit of $55 million for the same quarter last year.
Overall the sales of the Xbox 360 countered the earlier doom and gloom some analysts had predicted. Dean Takahashi quotes one analyst on his blog as saying, "There was a sigh of relief on Xbox 360." Takahashi reports that Chris Liddel, the CFO of Microsoft, "said [they] would now sell 2.5 million units in the first 90 days of sales, down from an earlier estimate of 2.75 million to 3 million. Celestica will come on board next month as the third contract manufacturer, so [he] believes Microsoft will hits its June 30 target of 4.5 million to 5.5 million units.
Read Takahashi's story in the Mercury News, his blog post, CNN's article, and Microsoft's report.
