...you know what that means? ....that's right, retailers will soon be told how much stock they are expected to receive around November, and Pre-Orders can soon begin.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=13272

...the report indicates that the Taiwanese electronics firm Asustek Computer Inc. has started production of the PS3 and will deliver the first batch to Sony this month.

The consignment is for 4 million units and monthly shipments will begin at around 200,000 units, then rising to 2 million in October. In addition to Asustek, another firm, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, is expected to begin producing PS3 consoles for Sony very soon as well. Sony has said that it plans on selling 6 million PS3 units worldwide by the end of its fiscal year in March 2007.

Perhaps Sony has learned from observing Microsoft's launch struggles, but Sony has also opted for a worldwide launch with two different SKUs. It will be an enormous challenge, but if Sony really has begun the production phase now, they may be in much better shape than Microsoft was (360 production started only 69 days before launch).

Liam