Steve Ballmer told the Ottawa Citizen that Microsoft had considered delaying the launch of the Xbox 360 until after Christmas, but decided against it despite expected shortages.

Here's the relevant quotes from Next-Gen, who seized them from the OC.

"In these new consumer electronics devices based on new chips, there's always the question of what yield will you get out of the manufacturing process of the new chip. We're getting a little less, but not much less than the yields we expected, and we know that the yields we expected will probably outrun supply."

"We decided to go ahead and launch rather than wait until post-Christmas and get a few million units out into the hands of users. We're doing our best."

"We are making more. All stores are getting new units each week. Can we make as many as people want? The answer is no, but not because we don't want to."

Now if they could get retailers to honor their pre-sales instead of trying to do more high-price bundles, things might be OK.

Microsoft Undone by Low Chip Yield [Next-Gen]

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