Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPods Sold Out?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
iggyb,
Apple like any other manufacturer of a
"hot" item for the Christmas season, simply underestimated the demand. It happens all the time. Almost every Christmas there's a product that sells-out, whether it be a Cabbage Patch Doll or an iPod. Apple's vendor could only manufacture so many units. As far as a single iTMS "internationally", that simply won't happen. There will be stores for individual countries just like the U.S. I expect SJ to announce iTMS for several countries at MWSF. Also it is not necessary to use iTMS to fill up an iPod. Most buyers will use iTunes to transfer their CD collection to the iPod I believe. iTMS is just a bonus.
It will be interesting to know how many iPods were sold in the past quarter. I'm betting that close to a milion were sold.
Apple like any other manufacturer of a
"hot" item for the Christmas season, simply underestimated the demand. It happens all the time. Almost every Christmas there's a product that sells-out, whether it be a Cabbage Patch Doll or an iPod. Apple's vendor could only manufacture so many units. As far as a single iTMS "internationally", that simply won't happen. There will be stores for individual countries just like the U.S. I expect SJ to announce iTMS for several countries at MWSF. Also it is not necessary to use iTMS to fill up an iPod. Most buyers will use iTunes to transfer their CD collection to the iPod I believe. iTMS is just a bonus.
It will be interesting to know how many iPods were sold in the past quarter. I'm betting that close to a milion were sold.
pkradd -
Thank you for your input. I don't think Apple was necessarily ignorant in the shortage, but I have read news in the past where they didn't keep up with demand before, especially in PowerBooks. I understand that it's a tricky line to walk between demand and supply, but given that it seems that running short on supply for a product that your company believes will bring more converts over can block the number of future switchers.
I guess I should've said that there should be more iTMS in different countries, rather than an international iTMS. Granted, it's a bonus, not a necessity. However, I find it to be one he// of a bonus! Being able to purchase songs a la carte at a reasonable price is revolutionary. Taking away that benefit for the iPod takes away from its value. Obviously, the iPod is still one great machine (and the UK folk seem to agree), but it's kinda like buying a top of the line car without A/C.
Also, before I get flamed here, I realize that Apple is working with the regulations in those respective countries to release iTMS. I'm just wanting it to happen sooner! 🙂
Thank you for your input. I don't think Apple was necessarily ignorant in the shortage, but I have read news in the past where they didn't keep up with demand before, especially in PowerBooks. I understand that it's a tricky line to walk between demand and supply, but given that it seems that running short on supply for a product that your company believes will bring more converts over can block the number of future switchers.
I guess I should've said that there should be more iTMS in different countries, rather than an international iTMS. Granted, it's a bonus, not a necessity. However, I find it to be one he// of a bonus! Being able to purchase songs a la carte at a reasonable price is revolutionary. Taking away that benefit for the iPod takes away from its value. Obviously, the iPod is still one great machine (and the UK folk seem to agree), but it's kinda like buying a top of the line car without A/C.
Also, before I get flamed here, I realize that Apple is working with the regulations in those respective countries to release iTMS. I'm just wanting it to happen sooner! 🙂
... and once in a while the demand will be over-estimated.
Lisa, Newton, Nu-bus ... and a long list of other technologies that didn't quite make the charts. People stayed away ... in droves.
=-=
Now, if the iPod could do video games ...
Now, if the iPod could do Palm PDA tasks ...
... ever more reasons to buy an improved iPod.
=-=
Happy Holidays
JJ
I think the iPod is successful because it does what it does - play music, very, very well. Games, contact lists, et al are not the selling point. When you have a device that tries to do too much, it winds up doing everything just a little worse then a dedicated one. Let's keep the iPod a music machine. Video can come to another device (or to your laptop). Just my opinion of course. In regards to getting enough iPods into the marketplace I believe Apple was at the mercy of a single manufacturer. Also, it's possible that production was EOL'd to make way for new upgrades. Although I believe Apple will introduce new low-cost MiniPods (hate that name) rather then any update to the current iPod at MWSF. My feeling is that an update to the iPod will occur in the Spring, possibly containing a color screen. There's no need to do anything with the current gen. as it is selling very well. But time will tell!
vouder17
macrumors 6502a
in the apple centre in Johannesburg ,south africa they sold out all the 25 ipods apple gave them in under 3 days.Ipods in South africa cost approx. $450(R3150) for the 10 GB so there must be guite a serious demand for them.That really sucked cos my dad was gonna get me one for x-mas.
rdowns
macrumors Penryn
iPods up in smoke?
Found this on iPodLounge
It still beat our overestimating expectations,' said Kawika Holbrook, assistant manager at the Apple Store at Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair, noting his store had sold thousands since Thanksgiving. Plus, fate may have conspired against a few iPod lovers. A large FedEx MD-10 airplane that caught fire Thursday in Memphis had a load of iPods on it, Holbrook said. 'The picture was being passed around the Net, and we were like, 'No!' 'Apple has not said whether any iPods were damaged, or whether that affected late-season availability."
http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/n364fe/photo.shtml
Found this on iPodLounge
It still beat our overestimating expectations,' said Kawika Holbrook, assistant manager at the Apple Store at Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair, noting his store had sold thousands since Thanksgiving. Plus, fate may have conspired against a few iPod lovers. A large FedEx MD-10 airplane that caught fire Thursday in Memphis had a load of iPods on it, Holbrook said. 'The picture was being passed around the Net, and we were like, 'No!' 'Apple has not said whether any iPods were damaged, or whether that affected late-season availability."
http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/n364fe/photo.shtml
winmacguy
macrumors 68020
Thats why I am waiting for Steve's announcement at MWSF as I figure this would be an ideal time to announce iTMS international since they should have completed all of the necessary negotiations for DRM and now enough people should have received iPods in their christmas stockings to create a serious world wide demand for iTMS if it wasnt there already. This would also serve to continue to momentum of global sales for iPods in the bulid up to the 100 million Pepsi promo at the Superbowl. I see 100million song down loads from iTMS as being easily achieveable inside a year from now one considering the xtra 1 million iPod owners world wide who would only have to down load 100 songs each to get to 100 million songs.
Pepsi 100 Million Downloads
The promotion to kick off in February will actually receive only about 25 percent response maximum. In other words, about 25 million downloads will actually be used (if that many). No promotion of this kind ever has the public cash-in on the full amount. In addition DRM is not the problem with opening iTMS in other countries. It is that each artist/label in each country has different agreements then the U.S. There are enormous legal problems. Don't forget it took Apple over a year to set up the rights for the U.S. Also, each country is going to have to have their own computer system to supply songs to customers, set up accounts, etc. The tracks will not be downloadable from the U.S. system. I expect an annoucement at MWSF on availability in the UK, France, Australia, Germany and Canada.
The promotion to kick off in February will actually receive only about 25 percent response maximum. In other words, about 25 million downloads will actually be used (if that many). No promotion of this kind ever has the public cash-in on the full amount. In addition DRM is not the problem with opening iTMS in other countries. It is that each artist/label in each country has different agreements then the U.S. There are enormous legal problems. Don't forget it took Apple over a year to set up the rights for the U.S. Also, each country is going to have to have their own computer system to supply songs to customers, set up accounts, etc. The tracks will not be downloadable from the U.S. system. I expect an annoucement at MWSF on availability in the UK, France, Australia, Germany and Canada.
Re: Sound Quality on Ipods?
This is my main stumbling block..
I confess to being a bit of a snob, but i think it's fair to say that the difference in sound quality it equal to listening to a 'mini-system' and then listening to a £1000 seperates unit....
but for playing the music through a computer or 'in ear' headphones the difference is minimal. IMO
This is my main stumbling block..
I confess to being a bit of a snob, but i think it's fair to say that the difference in sound quality it equal to listening to a 'mini-system' and then listening to a £1000 seperates unit....
but for playing the music through a computer or 'in ear' headphones the difference is minimal. IMO
Re: iPods up in smoke?
That's a long stretch of logic/conjecture: Apple is in the San Francisco Bay area. Oakland is in the San Francisco Bay area. The airplane from Oakland crashed. Therefore a load iPods got scortched???
=-=
FedEx will not publically release info of the cargo contents of that MD-10, or any other airplane that they operate.
Strong crosswinds contributed to the crash of the heavily loaded cargo jet.
If there had been iPods as part of the cargo shipment, an iPod would be in it's box, within an outer-box, within a sealed shipping container containing hundreds of other boxes.
The MD-10 freighter airplane transports dozens of sealed shipping containers, very few bulk/loose items. Fire needs air, and there is very little air between the sealed containers, and very little air between boxes within the sealed containers.
Cargo damaged by fire would be adjacent to the airplane's fuselage shell that was sprayed by escaping fuel from the cracked wing fuel tank, and damaged engine pylon.
The fire damage looks worse than it actually was. My un-named sources (airplane mechanics) say that the cargo survived pretty much intact. None the less, the airplane is a write-off. Salvage is in progress. The freight has been removed from the airplane and has already been sorted and sent off to the customers.
Sniff the box for any kerosene/Jet Fuel smell to verify how close your iPod was to the flames.
=-=
Go to Fedex.com for more info about your shipment info.
Be sure to have "Airway Bill" numbers at hand to track your shipment.
Your shipper should be able to provide you with an "Airway Bill" number.
=-=
FedEx hauls US Post Office/USPS Postal Shipments which require an optional-extra cost Postal shippping/tracking number.
=-=
Happy Post-Boxing Day.
JJ
That's a long stretch of logic/conjecture: Apple is in the San Francisco Bay area. Oakland is in the San Francisco Bay area. The airplane from Oakland crashed. Therefore a load iPods got scortched???
=-=
FedEx will not publically release info of the cargo contents of that MD-10, or any other airplane that they operate.
Strong crosswinds contributed to the crash of the heavily loaded cargo jet.
If there had been iPods as part of the cargo shipment, an iPod would be in it's box, within an outer-box, within a sealed shipping container containing hundreds of other boxes.
The MD-10 freighter airplane transports dozens of sealed shipping containers, very few bulk/loose items. Fire needs air, and there is very little air between the sealed containers, and very little air between boxes within the sealed containers.
Cargo damaged by fire would be adjacent to the airplane's fuselage shell that was sprayed by escaping fuel from the cracked wing fuel tank, and damaged engine pylon.
The fire damage looks worse than it actually was. My un-named sources (airplane mechanics) say that the cargo survived pretty much intact. None the less, the airplane is a write-off. Salvage is in progress. The freight has been removed from the airplane and has already been sorted and sent off to the customers.
Sniff the box for any kerosene/Jet Fuel smell to verify how close your iPod was to the flames.
=-=
Go to Fedex.com for more info about your shipment info.
Be sure to have "Airway Bill" numbers at hand to track your shipment.
Your shipper should be able to provide you with an "Airway Bill" number.
=-=
FedEx hauls US Post Office/USPS Postal Shipments which require an optional-extra cost Postal shippping/tracking number.
=-=
Happy Post-Boxing Day.
JJ
I got an iPod for christmas - so did my mom and we love ours. My sister-in-law told me thanksgiving that her daughters wanted a MP3 player for christmas - I told her the only one to get them is an iPod. She didn't listen to me, ended up getting them something else (don't know the brand), and they hate them. They love my iPod, though.
mmmmmm.... new iPod for xmas. That and I'm getting promoted and married this coming year.
w00t for 2004 😀
w00t for 2004 😀
dongmin
macrumors 68000
it's shaping up to be quite a quarter for Apple with Power Macs shipping in volume, PowerBooks finally being updated in October, and iPods 'selling like hotcakes.' One million iPods mean $350-400 mil in iPod revenues alone. Add 500,000 PowerMacs ($1.2-1.5 bil), 300,000 PowerBooks ($600 mil), 200,000 iBooks ($240 mil), and 150,000 eMacs/iMacs ($225 mil). So with just the PCs and iPods, Apple could be in the $2.5 bil range in revenues. In the quarter before that, Apple did $1.7 bil.
On a different note, with the iPod channels being close to clear, Apple should be readying the next big release. The iPod shortages during this holiday season definitely bodes well for new iPods for MWSF. I'm siked.
JGowan
macrumors 68000
I got the last 40!
I went to my local CompUSA and using TAP, traded up from the 30GB to the 40GB recently!
It wasn't like the old days though when you traded up and walked out minutes later with a bigger ipod (I've had the 5, 10, 15, 20 & 30 with the plan) ... I had to leave my ipod there and they had to "approve" the situation. I was without an ipod for about 10 days.
Finally, they called me. The Apple rep there told me that I had gotten the last 40GB ipod and that they only had a few 10GB ipods left.
Wahoo!
I went to my local CompUSA and using TAP, traded up from the 30GB to the 40GB recently!
It wasn't like the old days though when you traded up and walked out minutes later with a bigger ipod (I've had the 5, 10, 15, 20 & 30 with the plan) ... I had to leave my ipod there and they had to "approve" the situation. I was without an ipod for about 10 days.
Finally, they called me. The Apple rep there told me that I had gotten the last 40GB ipod and that they only had a few 10GB ipods left.
Wahoo!
JGowan
macrumors 68000
Re: 2 quick iPod questions....(sorry to hijack)
You are looking at MP3s all wrong. Perhaps you're only familiar with 128kbps files... maybe you just need to experiment with different bit rates to find one that will allow you to make the most of your IPOD space.
Have you ripped any CDs using AAC at 160 or even 192? AAC is MUCH better than MP3
I can't imagine you not being able to find a high enough rate so that you can put your "tons of CDs" all on the 'pod.
To date, I've got 9505 songs (or 875 Albums) on my new 40gigger!
875 CDs VS 60 CDs... it's your choice.
As someone has already stated, you'd only be able to archive about 60 CDs onto Apple's biggest unit of 40GB... man, what a waste.
You are looking at MP3s all wrong. Perhaps you're only familiar with 128kbps files... maybe you just need to experiment with different bit rates to find one that will allow you to make the most of your IPOD space.
Have you ripped any CDs using AAC at 160 or even 192? AAC is MUCH better than MP3
I can't imagine you not being able to find a high enough rate so that you can put your "tons of CDs" all on the 'pod.
To date, I've got 9505 songs (or 875 Albums) on my new 40gigger!
875 CDs VS 60 CDs... it's your choice.
JGowan
macrumors 68000
FYI to All Grandmas: Save your receipts
I think people who are specifically hunting the IPOD know their value over all the others. If Grandma bought little Jimmy a Nomad instead of an iPod, you can bet Jim's gonna take that sucker back as soon as can.
FYI to All Grandmas: Save your receipts for your "little Jimmys".
That's a big "IF". In my opinion, those that couldn't find ANY sized ipod, will most likely wait until more come shortly after the New Year.
I think people who are specifically hunting the IPOD know their value over all the others. If Grandma bought little Jimmy a Nomad instead of an iPod, you can bet Jim's gonna take that sucker back as soon as can.
FYI to All Grandmas: Save your receipts for your "little Jimmys".