Xbox 360 consoles have been running a little too low in North America for many a gamer's taste, so hopefully American Technology Research analyst Paul-Jon McNealy isn't far off the mark when he believes that Microsoft will be readying another 300,000 units for shipment across North America by next week:
"McNealy said he believed Microsoft had 300,000 to 400,000 units for the launch in North America, around 300,000 for the European launch and 100,000 for Japan. He expects Microsoft to ship another 300,000 units in the next week in North America, which would put the total at about 1 million units."
Unfortunately there isn't any indication of where the reinforcement consoles would be heading. It's probably safe to say that not all of these will be allocated to satisfy outstanding pre-orders at speciality game retailers.
Microsoft has previously predicted Xbox 360 sales could hit 4.5 million to 5.5 million units worldwide within a year. The company has not yet set a forecast for sales this Holiday season, but McNealy expects Microsoft to ship around 1.5 million Xbox 360 consoles globally by the end of 2005.