I don't usually believe in rumours and conspiracy theories. I prefer hard facts. Unless these speculations come from people whose opinion i respect. Bill Harris over at Dubious Quality has been posting on his blogs about the shortages that the X360 is experiencing after the holiday season.

His first post was on February 12  where he talked about the 360 inventory in the US drying up and peculiarly after the holiday season when demand for the console was not as high. There are four possible explanations for this he says:

1) The demand for the 360 is that high that supply can't keep up. Not likely.

2) The 360 is still experiencing hardware problems and Microsoft is trying to fix them before selling more faulty units to consumers and then having to repair them. Possible as it seems even the new Falcon unit still expriences some issues although to what extent we don't know.

3) Microsoft wants to dry up all non-Falcon unit inventory in retail stores to start selling the Falcon ones and stop the repair costs bleeding the company.

4) The most interesting has to be his fourth explanation. MS is preparing to launch a new unit that will sell significantly lower than the PS3 and much closer or even the same as the Wii. That would certainly stir things up.

He also posted again yesterday after listening to Major Nelson's interview with Xbox boss Don Mattrick. Major Nelson asked him about the shortages and he replied by being a little vague. That MS did not anticipate the high demand during the holiday season and that it will take some time for the units to stock up in the shops again this year.

Is the guy telling the truth or is Microsoft up to something? Only time will tell.