The holiday season of 2007 was definitely a blast, but Microsoft reportedly did not expect that the hot hardware sales it experienced as last year came to a close will carry over to the succeeding year. According to Jeff Bell, Microsoft corporate vice president of global marketing, there's a shortage of Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles in the U.S.

"We are really running short of product here in the United States. You could say we misjudged demand," Bell told Reuters in an interview. Not only does he believe the industry giant's sales will take damage from unexpectedly high demand, but Bell suspects "the overall industry number to be down a little bit."

Retailers, on the other hand, are not very happy with the lack of consoles to sell. While Bell acknowledges their concerns, he thinks the problem can last until spring when Microsoft will finally be able to meet demand.