Do you mean by there was a "shortage" for the ATmega168/328 and there would be difficult to find them? In that case I am going to be very sad and worry, because I really like to work with Arduino!
It was more of a case where it seemed, anyhow, that a lot of chinese suppliers bought up all of Atmel's stock, and you couldn't get any of the ATMega328s (plus other parts) from places like DigiKey or Mouser, etc (the big suppliers) in any quantity.
But if you needed a ton from a chinese supplier (who had bought them all) - it was "easy" (although it was possible to be burned by them, too - Ask SparkFun).
You could find chinese suppliers selling low quantities of them (fine for hobby purposes - provided you got the real deal) with or without bootloaders, on Ebay for anywhere from $2.00-5.00 US each. I bought a few 168s and 328s that way (dunno if I got burned or not - haven't tried them yet).
Anyhow - Atmel eventually started their production line again for the ATMegas, and DigiKey/Mouser eventually got stock - but I don't know what their numbers are nowadays (haven't looked) - about a month or so ago I think DigiKey had like 9000 pcs in stock, something like that.
The thing is, Atmel only has like one fabrication facility to produce their product, at least in the US (not sure if they have fab works overseas or not? Maybe someone else here can shed some light?) - and when shortages occur because buyers buy them up quickly, then you have to wait (at least, here in America) until the fab switches back over to the ATMega line and starts making them again. Even so, you might have to be "quick" to grab some when they are available.
