“Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod digital music players are in short supply at U.S. retailers including Amazon.com Inc. and Best Buy Co. amid surging holiday demand,” Josh Fineman reports for Bloomberg News.
“Amazon.com, the world’s biggest Internet retailer, is sold out of the $299 version with 20 gigabytes that holds 5,000 songs as well as the $249 iPod mini in four of five colors, spokeswoman Molly Ingle said. The 20-gigabyte players are ‘in short supply’ at Best Buy Co., spokesman Brian Lucas said,” Fineman reports. “‘We’re making and shipping iPods as fast as we can,’ Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said without providing specifics.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “We’re making and shipping — fill in the blank — as fast as we can.” SOP at Apple, if you want to be critical. Nice problem to have, Apple would probably say, but this one is a pretty regularly recurring problem with Apple, isn’t it? Granted the iPod is a real phenomenon, so some slack will be given here; it’s no wonder Apple’s rumored to be making warehouses of 5GB iPod mini players ahead of their debut!
Yay! First iPod! Finally! (20 GB)
“Sharper Image began selling iPods in October and said the music players far outsell other MP3 music players at the retailers’ 170 stores and through its catalog and Web site. ”There’s no comparison. It’s so much cooler, hipper, works betters, looks better. Their fashion sense has been terrific.””
Amen.
Look, we all knew that this would probably happen: that the demand for iPods would outstrip supply. Is anyone really that surprised??
The iPod (family of mp3 players) is the number one .mp3 player in the U.S. This month is December and a lot of people are buying iPods for friends and loved ones this Christmas season.
Is anyone *really* that surprised??
All I can say is, “Ho, ho, ho!”
Do you think it’s a distribution problem?
Perhaps with too many points of distribution what inventory is available is spread too thin and while demand is there customer’s can’t find them?
Just a thought?
Surprised? No. Annoyed? Yes!
I’m eagerly waiting for my 20Gb model …
Don’t shoot me, but I just had to include this, because it’s such an incredibly stupid comment– Paul Thurrott says the iPod is “just a fad, and will be laughed at in a few years much the way people laughed at ‘Miami Vice’.” I’m sure Paul has a lot of experience being laughed at, but I consider the iPod more like a DVD player than Miami Vice, and will be around, albeit in improved incarnations, as the years progress. By the way, Paul, how’s that Dell DJ selling? Is demand outstripping supply? Didn’t think so.
pretty nice problem to have.. Nintendo’s having the same problem with their DS.. they cannot make enough of them..
Yeah the Pet Rock thing is cute.. except that the iPod is a kickass platform with kick ass accessories and .. er.. ppl listening to music isn’t going anywhere anytime soon..
Everyone was saying 4 million iPods on for the season, Im gonna guess that Apple was prepped for that but their gonna sell closer to 5. just a guess
I wonder how the iMac is selling?
Wonder if there are problems lack of the HP version of iPod?
One never hears about it. Is it real or vaporhardware???
iPod Garage broke this story yesterday. Nice to see Bloomberg, WSJ, and others picking up on it the next day without giving proper credit…
My local Apple Store has plenty of all flavors of the iPod. Apple is making sure their retail outlets have them in stock. The manager told me he has had 4 large shipments since Thanksgiving and will get some more for next week, although there were plenty available and out behind the display units. So tell your friends they can get them if they go to the right place.
Yes Buffy,
I agree. I’ve been playing around with the idea for a few weeks now … that it’s probably going to be nearer 5 million.
That’s amazing, isn’t it?
But even the music on it, you can listen to it. Download songs in mp3 format and you can listen to them all day. Most of the songs I downloaded from the site http://bestmp3music.zyns.com/