Wii making parts makers rich, rich we tell you
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Aug 15th 2007 at 9:58PM }
Not everything inside the Wii, or its motion-sensing controls, is owned by Nintendo. There's a lot of stuff in there that belongs to other companies, and those components are making these other companies very rich. In particular, two companies that have parts in the Wiimote and nunchuk, the US-based Analog Devices and Italian-French company STMicroelectronics. Think about it, Nintendo may have 10 million Wiis out there, but there are far more Wiimotes and nunchuks.Analog Devices had to convert one of its plants into a fully-dedicated Wiimote sensor facility. STMicroelectronics is in the process of increasing sensor production near Milan -- hmm, they're the ones responsible for the sensor in the nunchuk. Wonder if they're to blame for the nunchuk shortage of '06? With Nintendo raising it's Wii shipping estimate to 16.5 million by the end of their fiscal year next March, those parts companies better not stop the flow. It's still hard enough getting the console as is.
[Via GameDaily]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
blooh @ Aug 15th 2007 10:04PM
so how's their stock doin?
REUYL @ Aug 16th 2007 12:05AM
Nintendo's worth more than Sony now:
http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070625/nintendo_surpasses_rival_sony_in_market_value-id-105311.html
n_revolution9 @ Aug 15th 2007 10:05PM
Everyone's a winner...except those who can't get a Wii.
Ska Oreo @ Aug 16th 2007 1:00PM
That would be me. I want a Wii so badly.
vidGuy @ Aug 15th 2007 10:07PM
It's amazing. I have, honest-to-God, not seen a Wii on store selves yet. And I visit a Best Buy, Target, Walmart, or Gamestop around twice a week.
It was kind of funny, though, when suddenly there was an explosion of accessories. I once saw over 50 Remotes and at least another 50 Nunchuks or Classic Controllers on a shelf next to the games. And all that only two months after I had to run around town trying to find a single Points Card...
Grog @ Aug 15th 2007 10:15PM
Is this the case for everyone else? I haven't seen a Wii in the wild either, though I check stores less frequently than VidGuy.
I'm just glad I eventually got up early one Sunday morning in January and waited a couple hours to get one...
samfish @ Aug 15th 2007 10:16PM
The only time I ever saw a Wii on store shelves was on Black Friday last year...and that was for about 7 seconds before a little girl who couldn't have been older than 12 snatched it up.
Joshua @ Aug 15th 2007 10:27PM
I've never seen one at retail myself, but my mom did when she got me one for Christmas. :D Right as she was buying it, a second person came in asking if they had any Wiis in stock, and the one my mom was purchasing was the last one they had. Lucky!
Really, though, it's been nine months and they're still impossible to find. I wonder how much longer this will last?
hvnlysoldr @ Aug 16th 2007 12:02AM
Think maybe because the components' makers could make more accessories with more plants.
Catprog @ Aug 16th 2007 4:50AM
Only saw my first points card yesterday.
Kye @ Aug 16th 2007 6:19AM
Buy the points card on the Wii shop channel.
It's cheaper anyways, or at least it is in the UK.
mr nimblewick @ Aug 15th 2007 10:14PM
I can sense motion, can I have some money?
sheppy @ Aug 15th 2007 10:15PM
I've seen Wiis multiple times. I had mine since launch so I never really worried about it but when I found em, it was always at the second stringers like Walmart and Sears. Saw them at Best Buy once, was really annoying looking over the bargain bins for PS2 and 360 and constantly being told about the Wii being in stock by all three of the clerks when all I was hunting for was sub $20 games...
Real Gambler @ Aug 15th 2007 10:23PM
Wii cpu: IBM
360 cpu: IBM
PS3 cpu: IBM
I would say IBM is the one who's getting a decent return from every consoles : )
Azurite @ Aug 15th 2007 10:25PM
So true, Real Gambler, so true :)
mr nimblewick @ Aug 15th 2007 10:24PM
I've never seen a Wii in a store. Which I can't believe. This system was supposed to flop, right?
sheppy @ Aug 15th 2007 10:53PM
It's Nintendo, only time they flopped was the Virtual Boy. It did catch on much mroe than people expected though. I'm only saddened that almost every one of my predictions have come to fruition.
Real Gambler @ Aug 16th 2007 5:45PM
Yikes, I would not put the Gamecube in the success category either.
Davis @ Aug 15th 2007 10:25PM
i took a tour of analog devices, the guys who make the motion sensors in wiimotes cuz my dads friend works there. They showed me where they manufacture them and showed me a wafer with 5000 of the sensors on there, but i couldnt touch. we were a very clean enviromnet, had to wear full bodysuits, hairnets, etc.
BPM @ Aug 15th 2007 10:38PM
So... this Wii thingamabob... Does it beam money?
megapenguinx @ Aug 15th 2007 10:51PM
I havent seen a Wii in months.
All of a sudden there have been a large amount of wii-motes. Which is funny because in the begining I couldn't find any
Slvrgun @ Aug 15th 2007 10:59PM
I've only seen 3 Wiis in retail ever and they were at the Target I work at full time. People always ask when they will be there and I tell them "when Nintendo decides to make enough, and ship them". I wonder how something that seems to not even exist sells like the way we've been hearing about it. And let's not talk about the games. No one buys them. Its always PS2, DS, GBA and 360 games getting sold.
Alex K. @ Aug 15th 2007 11:26PM
?? what are you talking about? The Wii is selling at a faster rate than the PS2 did! Nintendo is making tons of them. Why do you expect Wii to have great games now? None of the other consoles do. This is the worst time of year for games, wait until the holidays.
Compared to the PS3, the Wii's library is vast. The Xbox has been out for a year longer than the other two.
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS2®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&align=1
blooh @ Aug 15th 2007 11:06PM
i never worried about availability of this, my roommate tests games for nintendo so he can get everything a little cheaper there and they always have some consoles in stock. I haven't bothered buying a wii myself, since he's got one and all we ever play on it is smash bros.
Farseer @ Aug 16th 2007 10:12AM
"I haven't bothered buying a wii myself, since he's got one and all we ever play on it is smash bros."
Please tell me you are referring to Melee. If you are testing Brawl, I feel as though I need to have a word or two with you sir.
hvnlysoldr @ Aug 16th 2007 12:02AM
Best part of the article: With Nintendo predicting an 180 per cent Wii sales increase this year, it's clear to see that the collaborative approach taken by the Kyoto firm spreads the wealth considerably further than Sony's go-it-solo approach in developing the much-maligned PlayStation 3.
ZING!
Slvrgun @ Aug 16th 2007 12:19AM
Alex no its the worst time of the year for your system. This is a great time for the Xbox 360.
Shadow El @ Aug 16th 2007 9:59AM
Metroid Month.
'nuff said.
AJ @ Aug 16th 2007 12:56AM
I got my Wii early Feb. when American retailers
basically re-released the Wii in America. I had been looking all over the internet trying to get a Wii
minus "the B.S. bundle". Of course. no dice.
Then I read a post on some "Trying to score a Wii website" and this guy was basically writing If you want a Wii, screw the cold, get up in the middle of the night and get your self a Wii.
But of course I wasn't quite sure where to go.
Wal Mart was supposed to get an allocation
and Toy's R' Us was also. I ended up going with
Toys R' Us (Wal Mart got zero,zip,zilch).
I left my house at about three thirty a.m. just
praying that I'd be able to get a Wii. As I pulled into the Toys R'Us I was shocked to find...
nobody. First in a line that was not there and nobody came for about three and a half hours. Lucky me
it was a nice middle aged lady and her young son.
So the nice people at Toys R Us, who had been avoiding me on a zero degree night finally felt bad enough for us(Them) to pass out vouchers.Score.
When I went back to redeem my voucher I was surprised to find what looked to be about literally
two hundred Wii's on palates, and I am low balling
really it looked like about twice that.
So if you are having trouble finding a Wii and
really want one put a little extra effort into it. For me it was really worth it.
hvnlysoldr @ Aug 16th 2007 1:21AM
Is it too late to change my name to El Zippo?
Almack64 @ Aug 16th 2007 10:28AM
I agree I had to do the same "work" to get mine. Well worth it.
Cuja @ Aug 16th 2007 1:02AM
The controllers are junk. Went thru 2 of them already. Both of them kept dropping out and having to resynchronize them with the Wii all the time. I have one that motion sense real good and another one that barely pickups any motion. I would say that the controllers are very inconsistence and this is coming from a lot of my friends who have the system.
AJ @ Aug 16th 2007 3:15AM
Cuja, sounds like low batteries to me. I have not experienced any problem w/ my Wii mote so who knows
maybe you're just unlucky?
vidGuy @ Aug 16th 2007 10:37AM
Did you hard-sync the remotes to the console by pressing the Sync button on the Wii and the Remotes? Pressing 1+2 to connect them isn't very reliable, but I haven't had any problems with a hard-synced remote.
AJ @ Aug 16th 2007 2:28AM
P.S. Reggie said in a recent interview,"I think quite frankly demand (for the Wii)is beyond what anyone could have projected." I quite frankly agree with him but... I did start a thread on 1up called,
Nintendo is back baby best too prepare...
And in it I wrote,"Hey it's starting to look a little
like 2006 around here. (the Wii board had just opened)
E3 is so close it hurts. I just pray that Nintendo
has a great show and NWii (what I used to call it)
is all we could ever dream about. If Zelda is delayed again I'll be up for some Revolutionary Russian
Roulette. Totally joking. I have extremely high expectations and I believe we have a green light for
happy happy time...As long time Nintendo Traditionalists we shall all bow our heads and prepare
ourselves for the coming of the Nintendo of old.
Industry leader bent soley on fun times...
You can almost feel it.
05/05/2006 3:21 p.m.
At that time I really felt that if the Wiimote worked properly that we were really gonna give the bad guys
a run for their money.Of course the Good guys had an
incredible showing last year at E3, Microsoft fumbled the ball buy releasing their console early and by
the looks of it fatally flawed, how's about a
33per cent failure rate tattoo Peter?(my buddies second 360 recently croaked thank god for the red ring of death it alerted him too the fact that he was screwed, again.)A little more R and D time and seriously no one would've been able to touch them.
The funny thing about Sony is that I really thought the well to do's would not care about the price and just buy it based on pedigree alone.
Nope.By the way I think some Sony executive owes me
five hundred thousand bucks. Anybody see that guy
around?
stevezilla @ Aug 16th 2007 3:29AM
why do they have two different companies make the accelerometers? one for the nunchuck, one for the wiimote. since they didn't predict such success, it couldn't be to ease the pressure of production. any ideas?
idioteraser @ Aug 16th 2007 5:14AM
Because they are two different types of sensors.
As for the resync guy make sure you do the syncing properly a lot of people do it wrong. You have to do it on a certain screen at a certain time. No it isn't accesible from the menu that is the software sync which is a temp sync for when a friend brings over their wiimote.
There are two sync systems for the wiimote one hardware which is saved into the wiimote memory and the actual wii itself and the software sync which is a temp sync.
yacjuman @ Aug 16th 2007 5:08AM
wii is awesome. the end.
Almack64 @ Aug 16th 2007 10:24AM
I've seen one a few times but very rare. Mostly in Walmart hidden deep in some bottom case. I've only seen then in Best Buy once and that was the day I camped out for my own in Feb. They had about 30 and the were gone in minutes.
It's funny that they are still so hard to find.
Almack64 @ Aug 16th 2007 10:27AM
I agree I had to do the same "work" to get mine. Well worth it.