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WalMart To Sell iPod Shuffle?

dejo said:
But Wal-Mart is known for "influencing" the manufacturer into making a product cheaper or refusing to stock said item.
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If they actually do that, then complain. I don't see Steve Jobs letting anything like that happen myself. He'll pull the product before he does that.

Some people are just too negative I think - complaining about a problem that hasn't happened and isn't going to happen as long as Steve Jobs is at apple. As it is, there's not much more that they could cut out of an iPod snuffle. They already got rid of the display, firewire, click wheel, etc.
 
Well from the sounds of some of the posts on this forum, about half the people here are going to sell their iPods on ebay and go out and buy dell Djs in defiance of the Wal-mart + Apple marketing agreement. After all you can't get a Dell at wal-mart so it must be cool.

Grow Up.
 
The fact of the matter is that Wal-Mart is one of the most highly debated companies in the world. People are going to have extremely strong opinions either way, there is no point in getting super emotional.

That said my take is: If all you care about is the price (the vast majority) then Wal-Mart is great. If you are able to look at larger picture, then they are far from it. They destroy small town economies. Run smaller companies out of business that cannot compete on the basis of price. The bigger they get, the worse things are going to get. They put price pressure on their dealers, which contributes to outsourcing labor. Jobs are lost as a result, the empoyees of Wal-Mart are paid far less than is fair in many cases. Its not a good situation. As I said before, I will never shop there. But make up your own mind. A dollar or two here and their is a small price to pay.

Apple is a company I highly admire. I was sad to see them contribute to the growth of Wal-Mart, no matter how small a contribution.
 
BWhaler said:
So relax, shop at Walmart. I do on the occassion. It's cool. It's just the wrong brand association for a company like Apple.
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Maybe Apple is sick of having great brand associations at the expense of making any kind of significant impact on the computing world??
 
Those of you who are adopting very polarised viewpoints might do well to step back and look at what the bigger picture might be.

There are two products involved here with knock-on effects too.

The iPod shuffle is the headline issue. It is designed to be more than mass-produced, perhaps we need a new expression …Hyper Produced.

The whole principle is to manufacture them in amazing numbers and sell them as fast as they can be made.

However the second product is the iTMS.

Apple currently sells the vast majority of hard disk music players and is shortly going to be by far the biggest seller of flash players too.

However when it comes to downloaded music, although Apple is way out in front, there are quite a few rivals who would hope to make inroads at Apple's expense.

If Apple ends up selling 90% of the flash players and 90% of hard disk players too, the other music stores can't possibly cover their costs and Apple will clearly own that market instead of Microsoft.

That can only happen if anybody anywhere can get an iPod over the counter in their own town.

Once Apple has seen off the rival music stores, there will be no arguments about which player won't play what file. There will be a de facto standard and Apple will be in a position where it can then licence AAC/FairPlay for other manufacturers to use in their own hardware.

When that stage is reached, the economics of scale transform the iTMS from being marginally profitable ( I suspect that it's currently being talked down by Apple ) into being a serious cash cow. Add to that the income from licensing other manufacturers hardware and the fact that those players will in turn buy more iTunes and you get to a situation where Apple doesn't need to create actual products in order to get a substantial income.

I'm not saying that Apple will stop making hardware of it's own, but it gives Apple the flexibility to move in whatever direction it wants.

In order to reach that point, iPods needs to be sold very widely indeed.

The increased exposure of Apple will help to sell other iPods and Mac computers.

Whatever your views of WalMart might be, it's hard to think of a major retailer better placed to sell millions of iPod shuffles in a short timescale.

This must be very worrying news for companies like Creative, who were bragging about taking on Apple this year.
 
so the argument against walmart is they negotiate with their suppliers to get better prices for their customers? Don't all companies do that? Doesn't Apple do the same thing when they negotiate prices on components like hard disks, cpus, RAM etc? If I go to WalMart and buy a hard disk for my computer, their negotiating saves me money. Anyone complaing about negative impact on the local economy - do you every buy products from Amazon, the Apple online store, the iTunes music store? How does that help your local economy?
 
Survey sezzzzzzz

sjpetry said:
I wonder if this will help sell Shuffles? :p :cool:
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YES!

I used to live in Fort walton beach Florida, where i learned that Wal-marts to middle america are the place where people(the whloe fam) like to hang out, and blow their (my family included) pay, welfare, and retirement checks. This should help move apple into the mainstream.
 
maya said:
Hope this deal makes its way North to Canada, I have checked some of the local Electronic stores that carry Apple products and no sign of the Shuffle. :(
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Consider yourself that you have local stores who carry Apple products... All we got here is Future Shop, and only iPods (no shuffle yet, but they've been announced and are listed on their website).

I don't want to drive to Montreal nor Quebec City simply to test-drive a Mac mini... :mad:
 
Lacero said:
Apple most likely gave Wal-Mart preferential pricing for the shuffles. Wal-Mart could destroy Apple if it wanted to. In comparison, Apple is a drop in the bucket to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart will set the price, Apple will have to follow.
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I think its the other way around. Walmart probably went to Apple and for once was unable to dictate the termsof the agreement unlike what they do to their other suppliers. Apple has no need for Walmart. They have done alright with out them. I think that it does diminish the Apple brand. I go to Walmart to get trashbags and Twinkies.
Walmart stores are ugly, abusive to their employees, bully their suppliers, and yes, they do run out the local businesses because they undercut them in prices and cheap labor.
 
alandail said:
so the argument against walmart is they negotiate with their suppliers to get better prices for their customers?
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No, the claim is they don't negotiate. They dictate. And the supplier must comply or risk losing Wal-Mart's business.
 
dejo said:
No, the claim is they don't negotiate. They dictate. And the supplier must comply or risk losing Wal-Mart's business.
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They dictacte because they can. Walmart is one of the ones that does this but even Best Buy does the same thing. It's all about smart business now a days. When your one of the biggest retailers in the WORLD you SHOULD be able to decided what you sell and why. As a matter of fact, lots of smaller mom and pop grocery stores do the SAME thing.....except they vote with thier wallet. If they can't get the price they want, no matter, someone else will give them the price. Retailers in general have the power here. Not just Walmart.
 
I still believe the iPod and Walmart deal will hurt Apple's reputation. It doesn't mean that I will go out and trade my iPod because it isn't "cool" anymore, but a lot of people will. I heard one person saying that they'd rather the shuffle come with black earbuds instead of the white ones so you can seek out those who have the "real" iPod and those who have the "cheap" one. Childish? Very. But isn't that how things go?

It's kind of like hip-hop slang. (To some people) It's cool at first, but when the Christian white republicans (mid-America) start using it, people stop saying the words and turn to something new.

Sure Apple will sell shuffles like hotcakes, and isn't that the whole point of running a business?

Fishes,
narco.
 
How can it hurt Apple's reputation when half of middle america has never even heard of Apple? Apple innovation will finally be experienced by the masses. It doesn't hurt Apple's reputation in the least. Yet another reply to an inane posting.
 
Aldaris said:
IMHO, Walley-World or Wal-Mart, Sells inferior products, at least thats the mindset... whether you buy something at Wal-Mart, and save a few, I'd much rather give Best-Buy, Ultimate Electronics, or heaven forbid CompUSA (Mac User Hell imo) at least then I feel like i'm giving my money to people who've earned it not some faceless corporation like Wal-Mart... if Wal-Mart sells I won't buy... (iPod Shuffle not switch to PC)...

Wal-Mart=Cheap (and onry)

Apple=High Quality products for reasonable price (for me at least)

-Aldaris
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Not all the CompUSA"s are bad you know. I work in one of the Northern California stores and I work the apple section. I have a huge and loyal customer base and we have strong apple sales and marketing. Lord forbid you walk into a CompUSA that has /constant/ Apple supplies and doesn't dick you like Best buy and sells then WHEN THEY WANT TO. Lets see, they ****ed up /again/ with Apple by not selling their machines. Where's the G5's and Powerbooks at? *gasp* They are gone. Wonder why? Their salesmen here at the BB in town says: We refuse to sell apple because we don't make any money off them and their gross margin, our MANAGERS told us to sell HP's and Sony's because the store makes more money and it keeps them off our back if we hit our goals.

Wow. At least here in CompUSA, long as you buy something, we're happy.

Don't think that all CompUSA"s out there suck, its not true. We're like /any/ other retailer out there. We got a plan, a goal, we may or may not be the best, but, whatever.. its called business. Its the real world. You can't make everyone happy. Even McDonald's forgets I don't want pickles on my burger once in awhile and I don't get mad and throw a fit against the entire company. :p
 
narco said:
I still believe the iPod and Walmart deal will hurt Apple's reputation. It doesn't mean that I will go out and trade my iPod because it isn't "cool" anymore, but a lot of people will.
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Because Wal-mart selling Sony products has destroyed their image, not the last time I checked. Sony is selective about the products it provides to wal-mart for resale in order to maintain some control over the higher end products. However, the sony selection at wal-mart has been growing over the last few years.

I beleive Apple can follow the same example and maintain its public image as Sony has. Sony even has Sony Style stores similar to Apple stores.
 
(say with a twang)

Hey Honey!!! Check out this Jeff Gordon signed music thingy!!!!

Think about it Apple it could be big.
 
It would be cool if all the senior's that are door greeters at Wallyworld, wore the Shuffle with the lanyard!
 
Yep, Wal-Mart has ruined the reputations of P&G, GE, Duracell, Kleenex, Tide, Colgate, Pepsi and Coke, Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, BASF, etc, etc.
 
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