iPod shortages good or bad?

[johnbro23]

If you haven't heard iPods are selling out everywhere. Analysts are saying 4 million iPods will be sold. Do you think this is good news for reaching this target? Or do you think Apple simply can't make 4 million iPods by Christmas?

[alywa]

I was out X-Mas shopping yesterday. I'm in the market for a home XM radio system, so I had to go to Circuit City, Best Buy, and Tweeter. All were madhouses. Everyone was buying iPods and iPod accessories.

That being said, iPods were available, but running out. The Apple store had plenty left, but the 3rd party retailers seem to be running low.


Every year there is a hot, hard-to-get present. This definatley helps fuel sales. You're far more likely to buy one if getting it is a challange, due to the "hero" effect of being able to deliver. Look at the Nintendo DS this year. Impossible to get. Remember "Tickle-Me-Elmo", Cabbage Patch Kids, Transformers, PS2, etc. The list goes on and on.

Apple is being very smart. They are making as many iPods as they can, and are almost meeting demand. Post holidays will likely see the introduction of updated minis and a flash player, and this will renew sales again, especially for those who have X-Mas money to spend, and for those who may have missed out on getting one for X-Mas.

Rarity increases demand, demand increases sales. Sounds good to me.

-alywa

[Chip NoVaMac]

I was out X-Mas shopping yesterday. I'm in the market for a home XM radio system, so I had to go to Circuit City, Best Buy, and Tweeter. All were madhouses. Everyone was buying iPods and iPod accessories.

That being said, iPods were available, but running out. The Apple store had plenty left, but the 3rd party retailers seem to be running low.


Every year there is a hot, hard-to-get present. This definatley helps fuel sales. You're far more likely to buy one if getting it is a challange, due to the "hero" effect of being able to deliver. Look at the Nintendo DS this year. Impossible to get. Remember "Tickle-Me-Elmo", Cabbage Patch Kids, Transformers, PS2, etc. The list goes on and on.

Apple is being very smart. They are making as many iPods as they can, and are almost meeting demand. Post holidays will likely see the introduction of updated minis and a flash player, and this will renew sales again, especially for those who have X-Mas money to spend, and for those who may have missed out on getting one for X-Mas.

Rarity increases demand, demand increases sales. Sounds good to me.

-alywa

Right you are. Also Apple gets free advertising from the press that says that the iPods are hard to get. That increases demand and sales, without costing Apple a dime for advertising. It also as you said brings the product to a "hero status" for those that might never have thought about one before.

[johnbro23]

Right you are. Also Apple gets free advertising from the press that says that the iPods are hard to get. That increases demand and sales, without costing Apple a dime for advertising. It also as you said brings the product to a "hero status" for those that might never have thought about one before.

Yea, I agree on the free advertising thing. I saw a short segment on our local news station about iPods showing some lady with a cart full of iPod boxes.

[puckhead193]

I think its a good thing, I hope that people will realize that macs are better and buy macs and drive bill gates out of business, making Steve Jobs and Friends the richest in the world :p

[JeDiBoYTJ]

I was at my local apple store the other day, and they were practically stacked to the roof with ipods everywhere... only thing I noticed was that there were NO Pink Mini's anywhere.

[Jsmit]

I was at the Chestnut-hill Apple store today, they were out of all 20 gig iPods. They were getting some people to order online, and I think others might have been upgrading.

I think its a good thing, I hope that people will realize that macs are better and buy macs and drive bill gates out of business, making Steve Jobs and Friends the richest in the world :p

I only wish this was true. My theory is that many switchers feel as though they need all their Microsoft products. So they buy Office (which is useful) and Virtual PC, buying a copy of Windows in the process. It seems as though Microsoft makes just as much money off Macs as they do from Windows machines. I gave my contribution to Gates with my purchase of Office 2004.

[jamdr]

That being said, iPods were available, but running out. The Apple store had plenty left, but the 3rd party retailers seem to be running low.

Ha, I noticed this too. When I went to buy some iPods minis for gifts, Amazon was sold out of most colors, Best Buy and CompUSA had none. But then I went to the Apple store and they had 7-10 of each color! The only model that everyone seemed to be sold out of completely was the 20 GB iPod. That thing was nowhere to be seen. I think this is good. More iPod sales is only good, as long as there aren't major shortages (which there doesn't seem to be).

[caveman_uk]

It seems as though Microsoft makes just as much money off Macs as they do from Windows machines. I gave my contribution to Gates with my purchase of Office 2004.
I read somewhere that a greater percentage of Macs have MS Office on them than do windows machines. Scary....

MS isn't a charity and obviously make enough money off of Mac sales to make it worth their while. After Apple and Adobe, the MS MacBU must be at least the third biggest Mac software house in terms of sales....

[Benj]

There were tons in the Apple Store in London last week. There was a chap whose sole job appeared to be walking from the store room to one of the tills with a big box of them.

It may be that some of the third party retailers run out as Apple makes sure they have enough for their own shops and the online store.

Surely though everyone agrees that it is a bad thing if anyone who wants one can't get hold of it - that's a lost sale.

[alywa]

I agree that if one was going out specifically to get an iPod, and they were unable to do so because there were none to get, that is a bad thing.

However, I think the fact that they aren't "easy" to get is a good thing this holiday season. As discussed above, the media coverage is great, and it makes the iPod a much more desirable product due to perceived scarcity.

-alywa