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The company blames the delays on continuing sourcing problems for the blue laser diodes used by the machine's built-in Blu-ray disc. In particular, Nichia Corporation which makes the majority of the world's blue laser diodes is having production problems and is unable to keep up with demand.

The shortage of the key components is also likely to have a knock on effect on production of Blu-ray DVD drives

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which Sony also promised to ship in volume this year. The only consolation for Sony is that arch rival Toshiba is having similar problems in fulfilling orders for the HD DVD drives for the same reason.

Although Sony Europe will miss out entirely on this year's holiday buying season, the company has also been forced to reduce shipments to North America and Japan. Only 100,000 units available in Japan on 11 November and 400,000 PS3 units will be available in North America on 17 November guaranteeing a healthy market in sales on eBay before Christmas.

It also effectively hands the Christmas battle for console sales to Microsoft's Xbox 360 which now has a free run in Europe and a huge advantage in the US and Japan, providing Microsoft can step up production to meet demand.

If anyone was wondering what IBM was planning to do with the Cell processors earmarked for the Playstation 3 see IBM goes for the Petaflop.