“Apples’ [sic] iPod Minis [sic] started shipping this week, and Apple announced that it has received more than 100,000 preorders for the small, colorful, and overly expensive (at $250 a pop) devices. That may seem like a decent number, but consider the following: When Apple announced its first-generation iBook product line in 1999, the company received more than 125,000 preorders, and those machines cost over $1000 more per unit than the iPod Mini [sic]. We don’t mind paying for quality, but $250 is just too much scratch for what is essentially a tiny 4GB hard disk,” Paul Thurrott and Keith Furman report for Connected Home Media.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Paul Thurrott, the tech scribbler fraternity’s court jester, has become a major comedy act in print. Now, it seems, he’s dragged the never-before-mentioned-on-MDN Keith Furman into the act. We’ll keep an eye on Keith now, too. Paul’s airplane glue must be dripping into his PC, onto its Pentium hotplate, and the resulting fumes blowing out of his PC’s cheap fan directly into his face. Please, Paul, never stop writing this type of crap – it’s just too funny!
Paul is an idiot!
It should be noted that Apple sold 125,000 iPods in two months. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/jan/16results.html
Apple had 100,000 PRE-ORDERS in less time than that. I expect that many more people might have placed an order for the mini, but probably held off because they wanted to see it in real life first.
Despite what dumba*s says, I think Apple has excellent numbers, especially when you figure that no ads (as far as TV, at least-unsure about print) have been run.
Hoo-Ha! What idiots!
man is he a retard or what?
You mean everyone’s favorite retard…
I guess he hasn’t heard of the popular iRiver iFP-599T–SLIGHTLY larger than the Mini’s case, and holding 240 songs… for $450
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So, small has no value, does it?
And he must have missed Apple’s financial analysts call, in which the Mini was revealed to cost over $200 to make.
(Does he really think he can have an impact on stopping the Mini? I guess all he has to do is be seen to make an effort and collect his Microsoft $.)
I wonder–has Dell sold 100,000 units TOTAL of its digital jukebox yet? How many iPod cloners have sold more than 100,000 of any of their models yet?
Any sales figures?
$24,900,000 in bank before shipping the first unit isn’t too shabby.
Sure, he parted the Red Sea and saved thousands of his chosen people…that sounds like a good trick. But consider this: Just eons ago, he created the oceans, and gave life to millions. So, why get all excited about leaving Egyptian slavery for what is, essentially, a really long walk?
Does paul have ANY idea what a BARE 4gb microdrive costs? you can get one cheap ($250-$350) here:
http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=4gb+microdrive&x=0&sosortproperty=3&from=R10&y=0&soitemstatus=2&BasicSearch;=
Or you can buy a Creative Nomad MuVo2 mp3 player, rip out the drive, use it in your 10D digital camera, get a cheap 1gb microdrive, and you have a digital camera drive and a mp3 player for $200-$300 UNDER retail price for JUST the drive. Want proof? here:
http://www.mintchaos.com/archives/entries/002496.shtml
Whoa, that is a relief. I was starting to worry that our favorite clown is dead or something. Enderle is not idiotic enough to entertain us. Glad to have our village idiot back.
Do you think PentiumPaul will come out with a retration when the Mini takes off like a rocket?
I didn’t think so either. He’s too much of a p*ssy.
Dude
Jeez! What is it with this guy? Can he be this disconnected and willfully blind? Or is he really an existentialist comic who’s researching material for his act by trolling for reactions to provocative statements? Reason and logic are alien concepts in his own little microverse, and he’s shown himself to have more nerve than rotten teeth and a skin like an insurance salesman. Enough of Thurr-idiott already.
more like village idiots…=)
Ummm…right. Compare iBook preorders to iPod preorders. Yeah, that’s a valid comparison.
The only thing I can figure is that Paul is secretly working on his PhD thesis in psychology and writing lots of weird things so he can record the kinds of responses he gets. He seems literate; most of the things he writes that end with periods are complete sentences. This has to be one big scientific experiment on his part. If not, then I need to re-read Kafka and Dostoevsky in a new light (the Idiot, the Possessed, the Trial, etc.!).
I propose we stop calling Mac bashers all the funny little names we have for them now (PC weenie comes to mind) and start lumping them all into one large group of ‘Thurrott’s’.
Hmmm. ‘A Thurrott of PC users’. I think it does work as a collective noun.
Pre-orders are not available in Europ yet. Had they been, perhaps the numbers would’ve been bigger.
I tried something today. Something that’s been bugging me is that the iPod mini actually doesn’t look that small in the pictures. I don’t knokw why that is, but it doesn’t look significantly smaller than its big brother. When Steve was saying it was the size of a business card, I was thinking, ‘Jesus, those yanks must have prety big business cards!”.
So today I went to the Apple site and noted the measurements. Then I cut out a piece of paper of the same size, drew a little screen and a litte wheel on it and held it in my hand. It’s TINY! American business cards are just theregular business card size I’m used to and are the same size as this little thing.
I put it on top of my iPod and it doesn’t look so small. Like some kinf of optical illusion. I think Apple maybe needs to change (or rather just add to) its pictures to show it in someone’s hand, or next to something familiar, like a CD case or an audio cassette.
u know what, am tired of people saying that u can not compare the mini with the ipod.(u know, apples wit apples) well u now what, i can got dam it!!! and i do not care that it is priced better than other flash players. It makes no sense to me. I will pay an extra $50 sh*t a extra $100 for the ipod. And to get back to the topic dude 100,000 units pre ord…. ain’t sh*t. it should have done better considering the success of the ipod and the frenzy of itunes. I love Apple but they should hire me for marketing and Business. and for any one who wants to respond negatively to my opinion u can go jump of the roof duke! and take your barbie mini wit u…………..
Over 100,000 pre-orders in North America alone in a 6 week time period. Oh yeah Paul, I’d call that one hell of a slow start! Wanna know something else Paul? You’re a f*cking tool! haha
Enough with the [sics]. We get it. They made some minor errors. However, the way you handled it makes it a less-readable story.
Why not put a permanent link somewhere on the page that describes and gives examples of this peeve of yours? That might be a better solution than repeatedly subjecting us to this churlishness.
“I love Apple but they should hire me for marketing and Business”
Oh yeah, with your superb mastery of grammar, punctuation, and spelling, not to mention your unparallelled communication skills, you’ll be a lock for the position. What are they thinking by not snapping you up?
Yes, “I pod 2nd Gen…”, I too believe Apple should hire you to do its “marketing and Business.” Clearly, you are an intelligent and articulate individual with well tought-out ideas. And your desire to hear the opinions of others is outstanding. I wanted to disagree with you at first, but when you really started to get into the details of why these numbers “ain’t sh*t,” you won me over. Undeniably, you have gathered all the facts and presented a reasoned case, complete with solid statistics and comparative data to back it all up. Your suggestions for improvement and your impeccable road map for the future sealed the deal. Apple would be stupid not to hire. If, of course, they wanted to run themselves into the ground in a record-shatteringly brief period of time.
Just ignore Thrott. Since he won’t do his homework he has nothing valid to say and writes garbage just to marvel at his own silly words. Sad loser. Ignore him and he may go away.
learn how to write……
Is it just me, or did no one else notice that Thurrott thinks the original iPod cost $1,250.00? I looked again for a comparison, but only saw the statement, “…, and those machines cost over $1000 more per unit…” Just wondering?
“I will pay an extra $50 sh*t a extra $100 for the ipod” -i pod 2nd Gen…
Then do it. Nobody cares.