For those who were anxiously anticipating a Nintendo 3DS under their Christmas tree, it appears that you’ll have to wait a while longer. While it is often the goal to release new products in time for Christmas, the Nintendo 3DS won’t be available this year. Instead Nintendo has announced a planned release in February for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan. The United States and Europe releases will follow this in the spring of 2011.
This does have one advantage over an October/November release of this year. Hopefully consumers will be able to get their hands on one by Christmas time of next year. Recent releases of new consoles at Christmas time have created huge shortages and frustration for those who wished to buy. (I paid a premium for both my Xbox 360 and my Wii almost a year after their release because they still weren’t in stock in the stores.) While this will hurt some word of mouth marketing as the “impossible item to find” having an item that everyone wants but no one can actually get really isn’t all that great because it doesn’t increase sales. I believe that Nintendo won’t have trouble with good word of mouth marketing when the 3DS is released, regardless of its release date.
