“Nintendo Co.’s biggest battle these days isn’t against other game makers,” Takashi Mochizuki reports for The Wall Street Journal. “It’s against companies like Apple Inc. that are gobbling up the same parts Nintendo needs to make its hit Switch machine, people in the industry say.”
“Nintendo has told suppliers and assemblers it hopes to make nearly 20 million units of the Switch device in the year ending March 2018, people involved in the discussions said,” Mochizuki reports. “The problem is an industrywide capacity shortage for components used in smartphones, computer servers and other digital devices. These include the NAND flash-memory chips that store data, liquid-crystal displays and the tiny motors that enable the Switch’s hand-held controllers to imitate the feel of an ice cube shaking in a glass.”
“People in the industry say the rapid expansion of web-based services for corporations has driven demand for computer servers that use flash memory,” Mochizuki reports. “Continued demand for Apple’s iPhone 7 and a 10th anniversary model of the iPhone expected later this year are also keeping parts makers at full capacity, helping power Japan’s economy to its longest growth streak since 2006.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good news for parts suppliers.
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Good! I’m glad Nintendo is kicking kicked in the nards over parts. The way they stupidly handled demand for that Nintendo Classic Edition console, and then announcing they would stop making them when demand was far from satiated, they deserve whatever ill-winds blow their way. It has put me off Nintendo forever. What a HUGE disappointment of a company. Pissing off and denying customers not the best way to keep them no matter who you are.
Apple has the market clout and money to get first-class treatment from suppliers – not to mention the guaranteed delivery contracts.
If Nintendo failed to secure component contracts with suppliers, then that is management’s fault.