iPod Mini Supply Increasing

[MacRumors]

According to various reader reports, the online Apple Store is showing a 1-3 day availability on iPod Minis (http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/) for the first time since their introduction. Previous wait times have been as high as 4 weeks or more, due mainly to the fact that demand was far outstripping supply. Previous production ramp-ups were met with the release of the Mini on the international market (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/07/20040707090357.shtml), which again completely outstripped supply quickly.

It is not yet know whether the ship times are due to Hitachi's own rumored (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/06/20040616120446.shtml) increase in supply of the drives, or if worldwide demand is finally slowing enough for supply to catch up. Additionally, iPod minis are now available for sale in Target stores as well as various other resellers. Previously, the mini was displayed in stores only with a 'coming soon' note below.

[wrldwzrd89]

According to various reader reports, the online Apple Store is showing a 1-3 day availability on iPod Minis (http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/) for the first time since their introduction. Previous wait times have been as high as 4 weeks or more, due mainly to the fact that demand was far outstripping supply. Previous production ramp-ups were met with the release of the Mini on the international market (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/07/20040707090357.shtml), which again completely outstripped supply quickly.

It is not yet know whether the ship times are due to Hitachi's own rumored (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/06/20040616120446.shtml) increase in supply of the drives, or if worldwide demand is finally slowing enough for supply to catch up. Additionally, iPod minis are now available for sale in Target stores as well as various other resellers. Previously, the mini was displayed in stores only with a 'coming soon' note below.
This is good news for everyone, since the iPod minis have been in such high demand, and will likely continue to be in high demand. I'm wondering what has changed in the supply chain to increase the supply so much.

[Macaddicttt]

Finally! Now maybe Apple will be able to get minis to all those people who have been clamoring for them. I don't know how many times I've seen someone with a mini and asked them about their choice of color, only to hear, "It was the only one they had."

[Peyote]

bout friggin time.

[jackieonasses]

because of this....i bought one today! a pink one for my girlfriend.

[Doctor Q]

When I bought my iPod Mini in June, I had called 11 Apple Stores (all in Southern California) without finding one. Some stores put me on a waiting list; some didn't have waiting lists. Two called me back eventually when they got a few in. In the meantime, I found mine at a college bookstore and I was lucky to find it, because they stayed scarce. I'm glad to hear that the problem will lessen.

[Agent Smith]

Finally! Not that I'm bashing a good product or anything, but I hope that they've gotten that earphone thing worked out on the newer batches.

[MrMacMan]

About time is right.

We shouldn't need to wait forever to get one.

[hipvictor]

I found this link while surfing macsurfer...

http://www.randommaccess.com/news/1095796972.shtml

>>>A Target employee told customers today that iPod minis with a 20GB capacity would be available in store by the end of October. "They're working on them now and we're just waiting for them to come in," he told shoppers, adding that iPods would be bumped up to 60-gig capacities. No information on pricing was available. As of this posting, neither Target nor Apple have responded to our requests for clarification.<<<<

dumb employee?

[macridah]

Yup, went to an apple store an they said that they have all ipod mini colors in stock. Then, some heads turned, and once you know it, there was a long line of people buying ipod mini's.

[wrldwzrd89]

I found this link while surfing macsurfer...

http://www.randommaccess.com/news/1095796972.shtml

>>>A Target employee told customers today that iPod minis with a 20GB capacity would be available in store by the end of October. "They're working on them now and we're just waiting for them to come in," he told shoppers, adding that iPods would be bumped up to 60-gig capacities. No information on pricing was available. As of this posting, neither Target nor Apple have responded to our requests for clarification.<<<<

dumb employee?
I say hogwash. The iPod mini will be upgraded, but jumping from 4 GB to 20 GB when the smallest iPod is 20 GB makes no sense at all. Also, there's an article (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/07/20040719181635.shtml) on MacRumors that suggests the 60 GB hard drives needed for a 60 GB iPod aren't ready for production yet.

[Mudbug]

I found this link while surfing macsurfer...

http://www.randommaccess.com/news/1095796972.shtml

>>>A Target employee told customers today that iPod minis with a 20GB capacity would be available in store by the end of October. "They're working on them now and we're just waiting for them to come in," he told shoppers, adding that iPods would be bumped up to 60-gig capacities. No information on pricing was available. As of this posting, neither Target nor Apple have responded to our requests for clarification.<<<<

dumb employee?

retail stores are usually the last to know about a product update - you'll most likely hear about the release of an upcoming 60 gb iPod here before a Target employee knows.

[hipvictor]

I bought my silver mini at Fry's in Dallas on June 1st. During this serious shortage time, they had five silvers just chillin there on the shelf...no crowd around or anything! I was expecting to battle a hoard of soccer moms stocking up for Bastille Day gifts, but they weren't there!

I stopped by yesterday and they still had five silvers!

[fatfish]

What about the rest of the apple stuff, are we likely to see supply catch up demand. I ordered a dual 2.5 and 30" display in June, the display was delivered a month ago and now gathers dust waiting for the dual 2.5, which I've now been told will be October 15.

To add insult to injury I received not one but two promo emails today, saying that they were now available at the Applestore.

[waterbouy]

What about the rest of the apple stuff, are we likely to see supply catch up demand. I ordered a dual 2.5 and 30" display in June, the display was delivered a month ago and now gathers dust waiting for the dual 2.5, which I've now been told will be October 15.

To add insult to injury I received not one but two promo emails today, saying that they were now available at the Applestore.

Fatfish, if the order is still in an Open status you can always call and cancel it, then head to the Apple Store for the CPU. At the very least they may offer you a discount to keep the order open - it has happened before...

- waiting for iMac 20" to arrive on Monday :)
- first new Mac since a Wallstreet PowerBook in May, 98
- buying iPod today !!! :D

[barbaloot]

What ever happened to the rumors the mini's would get a software update to match the option on the new clickwheel ipod?

[woolman]

Ordered a silver, with engraving, off the Apple site late yesterday. It shipped (from China) before I got into the office this morning.

Two weeks ago when I checked, the wait was two weeks.

[outerspaceapple]

Awesome, Awesome.

[PDubNYC]

Does anyone know if Apple has in fact eliminated the earphone jack/static problem. I know it only affected about 1% of users, but that was some bad press.



whatever Doctor Q

[appleguy]

Gee here in NZ (New Zealand) it is still hard to get our hands on them.
Some resellers still have like about 100 of each colour on back order

[Sabbath]

This is good news for everyone, since the iPod minis have been in such high demand, and will likely continue to be in high demand. I'm wondering what has changed in the supply chain to increase the supply so much.

Well everyone but me! :rolleyes: I bought two minis the second they were released in Europe, as I was unsure which colour I would prefer in real life. Stupidly I have sat on it a new in box pink mini and am only getting round to selling it now. :rolleyes:

[virividox]

its about time!!!

[Porchland]

I found this link while surfing macsurfer...

http://www.randommaccess.com/news/1095796972.shtml

>>>A Target employee told customers today that iPod minis with a 20GB capacity would be available in store by the end of October. "They're working on them now and we're just waiting for them to come in," he told shoppers, adding that iPods would be bumped up to 60-gig capacities. No information on pricing was available. As of this posting, neither Target nor Apple have responded to our requests for clarification.<<<<

dumb employee?

Surely he was referring the the regular 20GB iPod.

Here's a few retailer web sites I found that are carrying iPod/mini:

Target: 20 GB iPod (http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1_57/qid=1095805066/ref=sr_1_57/601-9447927-0072929?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B0002OZXHO) for $299.99, 40 GB iPod (http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1_56/qid=1095805066/ref=sr_1_56/601-9447927-0072929?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B0002OZXGU) for $399.99, and iPod mini (http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1_45/qid=1095805066/ref=sr_1_45/601-9447927-0072929?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B0002HR9Z0) for $249.99.

Costco (http://www.costco.com/Common/Search.aspx?whse=&topnav=&search=iPod), which has packages including the dock and 15 iTunes tracks for the 20 GB iPod ($329.99), 40 GB iPod ($399.99) and iPod mini ($269.99). Basically, you get the dock and 15 downloads for $30 on the 20 GB iPod, $20 on the iPod mini and free on the 40 GB iPod (if I'm reading it right).

Wal-Mart (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3264563) has the 20 GB and 40 GB iPod at about a $9 discount each, which works out to about $4 after shipping if you buy it online. (I'm assuming you'd get the full $9 discount in the store.)

I assume Apple must think their supply chain is in good shape if they're allowing these three retailers to move forward. These are probably three of the biggest mass retailers in the country, and that's in addition to all of the HP vendors that will be carrying the HP iPod.

Apple sold 860,000 iPods (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jul/14results.html) during the quarter ended June 26, 2004, and that was with major supply problems with the iPod and mini. I haven't heard any forecasts on how many units Apple could sell during the fourth quarter of this year, but I've got to think it will be 2.5 million or more including the HP iPod sales.

[Macmaniac]

I am glad to see things improving, I saw at the NY Apple store that they had a lot of minis behind the counter. However in my experience it still has been a long wait for a mini, I wonder if Apple will report mini's and the normal iPods separately. I would be interested to see how many they have sold.

[gojira]

I was lucky enough to grab a green iPod mini from the Soho Apple Store back in the end of February for my girlfriend's birthday. I went back a few days later and they were all gone! She was very happy, BTW!

After that... nothing!

Recently, I've seen minis in stock and on shelves at several places in NYC. One was even at a photo supply store, which struck me as odd. I'm glad to finally see the minis flowing.

[gensor]

I seen this increase in mini's in CompUSA and my local Apple store in the most recent two weeks. In Apple's most recent conference call they stated that supply would increase greater than orignial projections from the prior quarterly conference call. That is what we are seeing. Some of this is Hitachi ramping new production. The million dollar question is did Apple find another source of supply such as smaller Tosibha hard drive or Seagate hard drive. Start taking those recent delivered mini's apart. I just bet you they also have either Toshiba or Seagate drives in the mini in addition to Hitiachi

[gensor]

I just bet you that Apple has another supplier. They new back in February the shortfall just in the U.S. and keep delaying international. First, Apple would not want just one supplier, that is high risk. Second, you just gotta know with all the talk of new hard drive player competition this year that Steve Jobs clearly understood that Apple had a once in a lifetime opportunity to drive a huge wedge between Apple and the competition if they could ramp supply. Steve Jobs is bright enough to see this and I just know that he pulled out all the guns and said get hard drives from anyone and everyone and now! If you remember last year heading into the Christmas selling season, Apple disclosed that the board had a debate on how many iPODS to order from Tosiba. Steve Jobs said I want a million and the board thought he was nuts. Steve won and they ordered a million. Guess what? They ran out of inventory because 1 million was not enough

[gensor]

One other big factor. I have been closely monitering sales in CompUSA and Best Buy. Here is what I have discovered after about 8 weeks of questioning the sales people in a number of Best Buys and my one CompUSA. Sale through of the new 4G iPOD has been very strong, they been running out of inventory. Why? 5,000 songs instead of 1,000 for $50 more. Also the longer battery life and new click wheel. Those 4G have been flying off the shelves like hotcakes. It has taken some pressure off of the mini's. MacRumors should hire me for my most excellent in store research

[Phat_Pat]

there is now an ad at the apple store that states that the iPod mini will ship in 1-3 days

[dontmatter]

I've got a bad feeling that this is not actually good news, b/c since when has there been good news on the supply front of anything? I think the change has been in demand, and that's all. People are sick of waiting, it's no longer new and cool, and people don't expect to be able to buy one and actually see it anytime soon.

Sorry to be the cynic.

[zwida]

there is now an ad at the apple store that states that the iPod mini will ship in 1-3 days

Oh yeah! Can't wait to see the iPod sales figures for this quarter.

[yoda13]

Thank goodness, I am ready for everyone (ie: my friends and family) to be able to enjoy a mini as much as I have enjoyed mine :)

[CubaTBird]

still no software update for the mini's so, in terms of functionality, they are identical to the 3g's.

[gensor]

You just know that Apple is going to blow away unit ipod sales from the last two quarters. Two factors, increased iPOD availabilty for mini's and the new 4G iPODS. I know for a fact that the 4Gs have been hot, hot, hot and flying off the shelves. All the kids wanted them for back to school. The analysts are going to be shocked when they see unit sales. DA! The smart money buying the stock are in a postion to understand how many iPODS have been flying off the shelves this quarter. Every kid that works at Best Buy and CompUSA knows. The stock price knows before the general public. That is why it really pays to do research and check the channels.

[Apple //e]

i kinda figured that last month when stores here had all mini colors in stock, but then at 450usd i doubt theyre flying off shelves.

[gensor]

i kinda figured that last month when stores here had all mini colors in stock, but then at 450usd i doubt theyre flying off shelves.

Doubt is a thought a feeling. For empirical based reasoned facts, please go to several of your local Best Buy and CompUSA stores and talk to the sales people. Get me facts son, just the facts. Everyone has an opinion.

[sethypoo]

because of this....i bought one today! a pink one for my girlfriend.

Wow, that's quite a gift. Rolling in the dough, are we? :rolleyes: ;)

[swissmann]

Wow, I had no idea they were still backed up like that. I haven't tracked them much because I have been too busy playing with my 4th Gen iPod Big.

[gensor]

Shares of Lexar Media (LEXR: news, chart, profile) rose more than 14 percent after Susquehanna Financial Group raised its rating on the stock to "net positive" from "continued net neutral," citing a belief that demand for its flash memory cards is strengthening. The firm said it thinks Lexar is "well positioned to outgrow the NAND flash market driven by the newly formed relationship with Kodak and a better than expected penetration of NAND flash memory cards in the camera phone market." Susquehanna, which also lifted its financial estimates for Lexar, added that the popular Apple iPod also uses the NAND type of flash memory and that demand is strong, with Apple (AAPL: news, chart, profile) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: news, chart, profile) planning to ship about 1 million iPods per month starting in October.

[jcook793]

I called the local Apple store on Sept. 13th and was surprised to hear that they had pink minis in stock and that they expected to have a regular supply. I promptly grabbed one and my wife loved her birthday gift. :)

[Apple //e]

Doubt is a thought a feeling. For empirical based reasoned facts, please go to several of your local Best Buy and CompUSA stores and talk to the sales people. Get me facts son, just the facts. Everyone has an opinion.

ok dad, there is no best buy or compusa in mexico, even though compusa is owned by a mexican company.

i have other things to do than check sales figures for ipods.

as you said "doubt is an opinion" - or at least thats what i think you meant

and if you want facts, a rumor site is the worst place to hang out in ;-)

[mariner77]

Does anyone know if Apple has in fact eliminated the earphone jack/static problem. I know it only affected about 1% of users, but that was some bad press.



whatever Doctor Q

They solved this problem a long time ago, back in April. No need to worry about it anymore.

[jackieonasses]

Wow, that's quite a gift. Rolling in the dough, are we? :rolleyes: ;) oh no....i am just way to nice....my ipod 3g died and i got her one instead of me...

oh and regarding everthing else

free ipods anyone?? jk jk...

[melgross]

Apple did announce an additional supplier to manufacture iPods. As far as I know, they are still only using Hitachi for the drives. Hitachi has supposedly increased their output by three or four times.

[Ja Di ksw]

Wow, that's quite a gift. Rolling in the dough, are we? :rolleyes: ;)

rolling in the dough with an iPod mini? You see fatfish's post? He bought a dual 2.5 and a 30" monitor! The monitor costs more than Apple's most expensive computer. I don't even think they have anything that costs more than that on their store. Seriously, I hope he's into the movie business, or does architecture or something. That's one insane monitor.

[WM.]

I assume Apple must think their supply chain is in good shape if they're allowing these three retailers to move forward. These are probably three of the biggest mass retailers in the country, and that's in addition to all of the HP vendors that will be carrying the HP iPod.
Yeah, I agree. I think it's gonna be a helluva quarter...
Apple sold 860,000 iPods (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jul/14results.html) during the quarter ended June 26, 2004, and that was with major supply problems with the iPod and mini. I haven't heard any forecasts on how many units Apple could sell during the fourth quarter of this year, but I've got to think it will be 2.5 million or more including the HP iPod sales.
Yep. Just to clarify, since you didn't mention it, Apple's fiscal year starts/ends toward the end of September. So the 860,000 number was for the third quarter (end of March through end of June), and the fourth quarter (which we're speculating about) would be the end of June through the end of September.

FWIW
WM

[Zaty]

What ever happened to the rumors the mini's would get a software update to match the option on the new clickwheel ipod?


I have asked myself the same question quite a few times since that rumour surfaced. I would be so great if it ever came true but I now fear that it was only rumour. But let's hope Apple's still working on it. On a side note: wouldn't it be possible that Apple plans to release a 2G mini at MWSF featuring those things so that mini software 1.2 was intented to upgrade the current revision?

[Rod Rod]

rolling in the dough with an iPod mini? You see fatfish's post? He bought a dual 2.5 and a 30" monitor! The monitor costs more than Apple's most expensive computer. I don't even think they have anything that costs more than that on their store.

The online Apple Store has the JVC GY-DV5000U for $5,995, and the 3.5TB Xserve RAID for $10,999. The 1.75TB and 1TB Xserve RAIDs are $7,499 and $5,999, respectively.

That sort of money would buy a lot of iPod minis.

[supertex]

I work at Best Buy in Baton Rouge, and we just put out a display model of the mini again this week. We had taken it down so people would quit asking for them. We have five or six of them waiting to be sold for the first time in forever, as opposed to last week when they, along with the 4G 20's were on backorder.

[Jonm]

Peter Jones in London has had good stocks of iPod minis for some time now. Even when the Apple Store was quoting 3-4 week lead times I know some shops here had plenty of stock.
If Apple had sense they'd make sure that retailers were well stocked before they're own store. If you place an order via Apple it's more than likely you are prepared to wait for delivery. If you walk in a shop and they are not there then you might just give up. (Well, non-Apple fans might.)

[wrldwzrd89]

...the popular Apple iPod also uses the NAND type of flash memory...
Sorry buddy, that's incorrect. The iPod and iPod mini both use microdrives, a type of miniature HDD - NOT flash memory of any sort. I know you didn't originally post that - you copied it from elsewhere - but regardless, the person you quoted is WRONG.

[Mainyehc]

They solved this problem [static and jack issue with the iPod Mini] a long time ago, back in April. No need to worry about it anymore.

And... AND what about that defect in the 4G iPods? (you can hear the disk speeding up, THROUGH the headphones, and some STATIC... hmmmmm... I don't think they will fly off the shelves that much after people find out about that, and specially after Apple (and HP) start getting bad press!

Here's the link, from a respectable source (iPodlounge):
http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles_more.php?id=4776_0_8_0_M

Oh, and by the way, I own a 3G 20GB iPod and was thinking of selling it so I could buy a 4G, also 20GB, until I read about this... Apple didn't comment on that, so I'll wait, and I may eventually forget about it and stick with my 3G... it's €339 less in Apple's hands, and one person which won't find out about the wonderful world of the iPod (because I'm tired of *telling* people how great the iPod and the Mac are, it's easier to *show* 'em or to sell my stuff [selling iMac G4 17'', planning to buy a brand new iMac G5 20''] :D ) way to go, Apple......

[stoid]

Seeing as we are now approaching the end of September, when are we likely to get numbers from Apple on iPod sales?

[gensor]

I work at Best Buy in Baton Rouge, and we just put out a display model of the mini again this week. We had taken it down so people would quit asking for them. We have five or six of them waiting to be sold for the first time in forever, as opposed to last week when they, along with the 4G 20's were on backorder.

Since you work at Best Buy, please give us your thoughts on how the new 4G has been moving off the shelves and how many 4Gs you been getting each week?

[gensor]

Sorry buddy, that's incorrect. The iPod and iPod mini both use microdrives, a type of miniature HDD - NOT flash memory of any sort. I know you didn't originally post that - you copied it from elsewhere - but regardless, the person you quoted is WRONG.

In addtion to the hard drive, I believe the iPOD uses a flash memory buffer so that music is loaded from the hard drive to flash so that music does not skip while jogging and other vibration.

[Colman]

Seems good: the mobile phone shops are selling them now, and every time I go near one there are people enquiring and poking at them. I bought mine retail, and the guy in the shop said they'd sold a lot of them. I know I've heard them sell out in one shop in the city centre. A lot of these shops are also pushing Powerbooks, and soon iBooks and iMacs... they don't sell other computers.

I suspect that Apple are seeding Europe with iPods in advance of opening the music store - and they probably make a little more money by selling them over here rather than in the US.


Colman

[VicMacs]

i think there is a need for a 10 gb ipod ... the mini is cool but not too good of a buy, i think theyre coming out with a lot of 4gb minis to finnally get them to everybody that wants one.. then theyll bump the hd space.. there is a 16gb gap in between ipod mini and ipod...

what about a 10 gb ipod for 199?

id jump to the occasion...

[Porchland]

Yeah, I agree. I think it's gonna be a helluva quarter...

Yep. Just to clarify, since you didn't mention it, Apple's fiscal year starts/ends toward the end of September. So the 860,000 number was for the third quarter (end of March through end of June), and the fourth quarter (which we're speculating about) would be the end of June through the end of September.

I was actually referring to the fourth quarter of the calendar year (Oct./Nov./Dec.) when I speculated that Apple might sell 2.5 million iPods in the fourth quarter. But then I saw the CBS Marketwatch (http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?siteid=mktw&dateid=38251.5614699074-821246806&) report cited above that said Apple and HP intended to ship one million iPods a month starting in October.

If Apple was selling 860,000 units a quarter at -- just for the sake of argument -- a $20 margin per unit, that works out to a quarterly earnings of about $17.2 million on the iPod alone. If Apple maintains the same margin and sells a million units a month, the quarterly earnings on iPods jump to $60 million. It would still only accounts for about 10 percent of Apple's earnings (assuming a $20 margin per unit), but look how many new formerly-non-Apple hands the iPod is going to be in this time next year.

[Porchland]

Apple's pattern with the iPod has been to bump up the size and leave the price alone. I'm not properly geeked in current flash drive trends, but from a marketing standpoint, I could see Apple going to:

10 GB iPod mini ($249)
20 GB iPod ($299)
40 GB iPod ($399)
60 GB iPod ($499)

I could see Apple doing this in January, which would be a year after the iPod mini first came onto the market and right after the Christmas crush. Maybe later. It will depend a lot on the demand for the mini and the cost of the drives. If demand stays high, there's not much reason for Apple to update -- particularly if Apple can increase its margin on falling drive prices.

I would still expect a bump in the size of the mini rather than a price dip.

After reading the blurb (http://www.macosrumors.com/) at Macosrumors.com, I think iPod mini may be getting bump in size AND a price dip. Macosrumors says the iPod mini (4 GB) will drop to $199 and that Apple would be able to chose from available 5GB, 6GB and 8 GB one-inch drives on the market for a higher-capacity iPod mini.

I would revise my earlier guess to:

4 GB iPod mini ($199)
8 GB iPod mini ($249)
20 GB iPod ($299)
40 GB iPod ($399)
60 GB iPod ($499)

Given the improved supply of iPods, the early success of the HP deal, and (I expect) a great Christmas, the January keynote is looking more like an iPod rally.

[Bozola]

I would add..

04 GB iPod min ($199)

Apple's pattern with the iPod has been to bump up the size and leave the price alone. I'm not properly geeked in current flash drive trends, but from a marketing standpoint, I could see Apple going to:

10 GB iPod mini ($249)
20 GB iPod ($299)
40 GB iPod ($399)
60 GB iPod ($499)

[Charko]

I've got a bad feeling that this is not actually good news, b/c since when has there been good news on the supply front of anything? I think the change has been in demand, and that's all. People are sick of waiting, it's no longer new and cool, and people don't expect to be able to buy one and actually see it anytime soon.

Sorry to be the cynic.

No, I don't believe this is the case. I read a report ( I think it was MacWorld UK ) that talked of 70 thousand outstanding orders for iPods in Britain. This was two days ago.

In continental Europe - not least here in Germany - the iPod craze is just getting under way.

There have been estimates that within a matter of months, there will be about a million iPods sold worldwide every month!

[supertex]

Since you work at Best Buy, please give us your thoughts on how the new 4G has been moving off the shelves and how many 4Gs you been getting each week?

I'd love to give you an accurate idea, but up until this week, we've consistently run out of 4G 20's and minis. They've been drop-shipping them via FedEx whenever they can send them rather than sending them on our usual truck twice a week. So it's nearly impossible to tell how well they've been moving, except that people were begging us for 20s, and it was a rare occasion when, say we got four minis from FedEx in the morning, that they would be there when we closed. A surprising number of people would spring for the 40 when they found out we didn't have any 20s though.

[Porchland]

1. iLife '05:
* iTunes 5 with a major update to the Music Videos and Movie Trailers section that has some new content -- possibly for a charge -- like an Apple-exclusive episodic series similar to the BMW film series. This would open the door for TV series, movies, etc., in the future.

* iMovie 5 with support for true widescreen editing.

* IDVD 5 with support for widescreen.

* iPhoto 5 with a better organizational scheme and support for iPod.

* GarageBand 2 with (who cares).

2. Lots of talk about the iMac, with maybe some sort of promotion announcement or making AirPort standard on all models.

3. "One More Thing": a 60 GB iPod with on-screen support for moving digital images directly from digital cameras through USB 2 and FireWire and the ability to preview the images on screen in black-and-white, which opens the door to a color screen down the road.

I don't think we'll see any changes in the iPod or the iPod mini before the end of this year.

[slu]

* GarageBand 2 with (who cares).


I care about the features in Garage Band 2 and so do all the people here:
http://www.icompositions.com/

More on topic, I think this is great news. So great that I ordered one for my sister for her birthday just after reading this. She is going to be so pumped up when her pink mini shows up in 5 days or so. She is a 15 year old and they love iPods. I am hoping this is the first step that leads to a iBook or iMac for when she goes to college in two years. :)

[Charko]

Porchland,

I agree, more or less, with your 'list' .

But I do so hope that there'll be a better graphics card for the iMac - if only as an option.

[pcharles]

I bought a silver one for my brother-in-law, it shipped the next day.

:)

[pcharles]

Keeping the options down, keeps the price down. The card is actually a very good card and standard on all the upper level DELL machines. Remember, you do not buy an iMac for hardcore gaming. For general purpose gaming, it works perfectly well.

The other problems with faster cards are the size and the heat. Some of them have multiple fans and there simply is no room for the fans or extra heat.


Porchland,

I agree, more or less, with your 'list' .

But I do so hope that there'll be a better graphics card for the iMac - if only as an option.

[pcharles]

The profit margin would probably not justify the production. Beside that, the competition baseline is 15GB and Apple competes well with those on price and performance.

I'm waiting for the 60GB one. I'll probably need an 80GB by the time that is released.



i think there is a need for a 10 gb ipod ... the mini is cool but not too good of a buy, i think theyre coming out with a lot of 4gb minis to finnally get them to everybody that wants one.. then theyll bump the hd space.. there is a 16gb gap in between ipod mini and ipod...

what about a 10 gb ipod for 199?

id jump to the occasion...

[pcharles]

I say hogwash. The iPod mini will be upgraded, but jumping from 4 GB to 20 GB when the smallest iPod is 20 GB makes no sense at all. Also, there's an article (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/07/20040719181635.shtml) on MacRumors that suggests the 60 GB hard drives needed for a 60 GB iPod aren't ready for production yet.

I agree. There is talk of 8GB microdrives, but I have heard nothing about larger ones. I'm sure the person means the small ipod will increase from 15 to 20GB, giving Apples iPod line as 20, 40, 60GB by Christmas. What would be cool is to go 20, 40, 80GB and give me a little room to expand because I use my iPod for documents as well as music and my (and my wifes combined) music collection is already over 50GB ay AAC128.

I suppose now that LacCie have the half-terabyte FW-800 drives , I should spend next summer reencoding everything to Apple Lossless and then sample some to MP3 for the car. :cool:

[bennok]

Too may Apple will never sell any of them. Especially not at $249.

[wrldwzrd89]

In addtion to the hard drive, I believe the iPOD uses a flash memory buffer so that music is loaded from the hard drive to flash so that music does not skip while jogging and other vibration.
I'd be surprised if it used a flash memory buffer, due to the write-cycle problem flash has. I would think the iPod uses SRAM as a memory buffer instead.

[yg17]

Going back to the Target thing, I work at Target and sometimes work in electronics, and I can tell you the employee was full of crap. We never, ever hear about iPod updates before they happen. We find out about them when Apple announces them, for those of us who don't pay attention, we find out about iPod updates when they get shipped to the store and we're like "Oh lookie, new iPods"

I'm at college now so I'm not working there, but when i was there over labor day weekend to drop in and say hi to everyone, we were still selling 3rd gen iPods and didn't even have displays or signs for the 4th gen. So there's no way this employee is telling the truth

[Dave00]

....Apple (AAPL: news, chart, profile) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: news, chart, profile) planning to ship about 1 million iPods per month starting in October.
A million per MONTH! Holy sales increase Batman. That's awesome. The iPods must really be growing in terms of percentage of the bottom line, esp with the shortages in CPU's.

--Dave

[Dave00]

Sorry buddy, that's incorrect. The iPod and iPod mini both use microdrives, a type of miniature HDD - NOT flash memory of any sort. I know you didn't originally post that - you copied it from elsewhere - but regardless, the person you quoted is WRONG.
There is a flash memory buffer for the hard drive - which is why you can jog with it - that's probably what the article was referring to.

--D

[CholEoptera36]

This is great news for everyone who wants an iPod mini. Also this looks very good when you step back and look at Apple's situation. They're getting their products out now. iMac G5's were out pretty fast, the fastest I've seen Apple ship in a while on a new computer release. Although the mini's dont' do me much justice, I think they're waste of money compared to the 20GB and 40GB iPods.

Still always good to hear some good news from Apple for a change.

[gskiser]

They're getting their products out now. iMac G5's were out pretty fast, the fastest I've seen Apple ship in a while on a new computer release.
Relatively speaking. Apple still has a lot of work to do in getting announced and shipped in a timely fashion. With the iMac, instead of announcing it and then having a wait, Apple waited a couple extra months to announce it. Of course for those few months, they had no iMacs to sell whatsoever, so I really don't count this as fast shipping on a new computer release.

In essence, if we go by the date they intended to announce the G5 iMac (and stopped taking orders for or even selling the G4 iMac), it took them 2 1/2 months to get the G5 iMac out the door. Its different than how they've done it in the past, but not really an improvement.

[Charko]

pcharles,

I'm not a 'hardcore' gamer. But what does that have to do with it?

If someone just plays occasionally, do you think he's only interested in 'old' games and not the the new and graphically more demanding ones.
This isn't like the difference between a professional (in whatever trade) who needs advanced software and an amateur, who doesn't.
I'm saving up my hard-earned €s to buy a 20 inch iMac - probably between June and September '05. (I'll try and catch the second revision.)

But the present iMac can't handle some games which are on the market now. What will it look like in two years!?

With extra RAM, I'll be spending about €2300 and I wont even be able to use current 'entertainment' (not 'professional') software - unless they update the card of course.

And as for heat and cooling... If Apple continue to insist that you can't change anything - i.e. no slots. They could, at the very least, design a computer which will take a state-of-the-art graphics card.

[Eric_Z]

State of the art gfx card (6800, x800) would be hoping too much due to the heat, a 6600/GT however... (there is a AGP version coming)

[WM.]

Seeing as we are now approaching the end of September, when are we likely to get numbers from Apple on iPod sales?
I think the middle of October would be about right...check the MR archives for the dates of previous quarterly results conference calls.

[CholEoptera36]

In essence, if we go by the date they intended to announce the G5 iMac (and stopped taking orders for or even selling the G4 iMac), it took them 2 1/2 months to get the G5 iMac out the door. Its different than how they've done it in the past, but not really an improvement.

It's an improvement on how long it took everybody to get their dual G5's, that's for sure. And yes you make a good point, there was that two month period of no sales. But atleast when people ordered and had their money deducted from their chekcing account, they knew it was being shipped. Unlike the Dual G5's where you may order it and pay for it, but you won't even see it get shipped till 4 months down the road.

[mwpeters8182]

I just picked up a mini (my 1G bit the dust today), and I love it.

Yes, it has less capacity than the iPod big, for only a bit less, but it's much better for going to the gym and jogging than the iPod. Also, if I can somehow find a way to listen to 4 gigs of music before I get back to my computer, I've done something I've never done before.

Looking forward to commuting with the little guy.

MP

[jared_kipe]

Make mine green.

[Cadence]

the LA Apple store at the Grove has plenty of Minis. They even had a handful of refurbs for about $220