According to reports the hot new marketing tool is to claim your product is totally out of stock. This reportedly drives interest and panic buys.

Apple's iPod Video and Microsoft's Xbox 360 shortages are being questioned for legitimacy.

Business week has an article about how the iPod demand is surpassing the supply. While a shortage might be legitimate, it is also surprising that the iPod video, which uses industry standard components, would have such a shortage writes UberGizmo

According to Arstechnica , Microsoft is engineering the supply chain so the Xbox 360 will sell out at most locales. Why? Two reasons. First, widespread sellouts would create the appearance that the console is so popular that retailers can't keep it in stock--actually it wouldn't be an appearance, since it would technically be true. Then the media would pick up on the shortages, generating even more buzz about the console and giving it more free publicity writes GameSpot