NEWS - Tuesday, November 6, 2001
XBOX : "Secret Weapon"
It is now less than ten days to the official launch of the XBOX. The media
blitz is in full operation. The buzz is out, can Microsoft actually take on
Sony and Nintendo? What no one has been focusing on is how Microsoft is
getting this powerful machine out to the public in full force and on
schedule. The rumors are that there won’t be enough XBOXes out for the
consumer when they go shopping for consoles, it will be another Sony like
disaster. I don’t know if you noticed, but J. Allard and Seamus Blackley
don’t seem worried one bit. WIRED magazine exposes Microsoft’s "Secret
Weapon" in Nov. 2001 issue. The cover has the XBOX with a picture of Michael
Marks holding it with a nice smirk. He knows he has the future of gaming in
his hands. Flextronics is the company responsible for manufacturing the XBOX and getting it on the shelves of every retail in America. The article goes in depth about the planning it took and the advantages it has to make sure they can meet demand and most likely exceed them. The key to Microsoft being successful in this launch is due to the fact they didn’t need to build any factories to manufacture the XBOX. Flextronics has everything they need in-house. They have the materials needed to make this machine with out having to wait for them. "Microsoft has a ton of money, but if they had to build factories, they wouldn’t have done this project," says Flextronics chair and CEO Michael Marks. "If guys like us didn’t exist, guys like Microsoft wouldn’t do a hardware product. The risk would be too high."
There you have it, this is why Mr. Blackley and Mr. Allard are not shaking or panicking about XBOX hitting store shelves. For those who are worried they won’t get their XBOX, look at the article in this month’s WIRED, you will have your XBOX.
Contributing Editor: Carlos
Source: http://www.wiredmagazine.com/
