Nintendo fighting over Switch components
Increased production targets pit Mario maker against Apple, other tech giants for limited supplies of memory chips, vibration motors
The Nintendo Switch might be supply constrained this year, both at retail and in production. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Nintendo has almost doubled its manufacturing target for the fiscal year to nearly 20 million units, and as a result is finding itself competing with smartphone makers like Apple for parts in limited supply.
Components like NAND flash memory chips, LCD screens, and the motors used to create the Switch's vibration feature are all in demand from other mobile device makers like Toshiba and Apple. What's more, a number of those companies are putting in larger orders for those parts, making them more likely to best Nintendo in a bid for limited supplies. The paper noted that Nintendo could secure the parts it needs by paying more for them, but that could go against its stated policy of not selling the system at a loss when the company has already been spending more to ship the hardware out by air in an attempt to maintain early sales momentum.
One reason the Wall Street Journal gives for the Switch's popularity is that some households are buying multiple systems so the adults and children can each have their own. A Twitter poll conducted by the author of the article drew more than 700 responses, with 24% of people saying their household owned two or more systems.