Weaker than expected sales of Apple’s iPod Shuffle could force Samsung to flood the market with a large amount of NAND flash capacity, if Apple cancels orders, according to DigiTimes.
“Peter Shu, chairman of Transcend Information, has stated that NAND flash prices may drop up to 40% in the future,” Josephine Lien and Carrie Yu report for DigiTimes. “Although the iPod Shuffle was a hit when it was first introduced on the market, sales of the MP3 player are not justifying the supply forecasts for NAND flash that Apple has secured from Samsung, the sources stated. If Apple cancels the orders, Samsung may release even more NAND flash into a market already being affected by the influx of a number of new NAND flash producers, Shu indicated.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Take DigiTimes’ reports with a grain of salt; there’s usually something backwards or a little off in several Apple-related articles we seen in the past from DigiTimes. If we hear that iPod shuffle demand is “weaker than expected” from another independent source, we’ll let you know.
according to DigiTimes …..
That kinda makes it untrue from the off.
I still don’t understand that thing. Who would ever want it? The mini isn’t much bang for the buck, either. Weak product, weak sales. Thank goodness SOME things in the world still work the way they should.
Anyone know the sales figures on the Mac mini?
Not saying they’re not, but weaker than expected by whom?
Never accept bad news about Apple!!!! Never!!!!
Becuase if it is true….ohmigawd…next we will not accept that iPod growth is leveling off!!!
It can´t be, it won´t be!
mini sales? minimal.
Weak product, Mr. PC Apologist? I don’t think so. I have a 3G iPod 40GB, a 1G iPod photo 60GB, and a 1GB shuffle and I love them all. The shuffle is perfect for its intended use – small, lightweight for just having with you while running, working out, etc. Working out with a full-size iPod is a pain in the a–. And who cares if it doesn’t have a screen. You make up the playlist so you know what songs are on there. I think we need to wait and see if more reports pop up about supposed weak sales before dissing the product.
Inventories of iPods at third-party retailers have been increasing over the last 2-3 months. These reports are verified from various sources and are known. Apple ramped up production quickly in order to satisfy demand and now the supply chain needs to be balanced. Nothing new here.
Angelus520: “I have a 3G iPod 40GB, a 1G iPod photo 60GB, and a 1GB shuffle and I love them all.”
Wow – you have money to burn. Three things that all do the same thing. How many cars do you have? How many tvs? How many computers? Me poor, me have 1.
NoPCZone: “Nothing new here.”
Agreed, sales for iPod products are definitely slowing.
PC Apologist wrote:
It’s alright if YOU don’t want it, but why must people assume that just because they don’t like something, no one will? Narcissism is indeed our most debilitating flaw.
MDN magic word: great. As in, the iPod Shuffle, IMHO.
Actually Steve said in his interview with CNBC after the keynote at the WWDC that they were happy to be able to keep stores stocked with iPod for the first time in quite a while. He might have been doing a little bit of prophylactic spinning to get the public used to the idea that iPod sales are leveling off (not decreasing mind you, leveling off, there is a big difference).
The shuffle is a great product for newcomers to the digital music lifestyle. My 12 year old son saved up his money to buy one, and he absolutely loves it. All of his friends want one, my wife liked it so much she asked for one for mother’s day and we got it for her and she loves it! She’s not a technophile by any means, she doesn’t like to have to deal with technology. Half the time she can’t get our home theater system up and running without me or the boy turning it on for her and it’s only 3 buttons to turn on everything.
It’s amazing how good the music sounds coming out of a device so tiny. All of my son’s grandparents and great-grandparents have all expressed interest in having one. Even his great granddad that still doesn’t understand how a movie can fit on a dvd is in love with it. We loaded an old Glenn Miller song on one of the shuffles and let him listen to it and he couldn’t sit still. He ended up standing up and dancing around.
You guys that are saying you don’t understand are the ones that don’t understand. To a lot of people that aren’t as tech savvy as those of us reading websites like this…this is an impressive little device. I haven’t shown it to anyone that hasn’t started tapping their feet or get up and start dancing around while listening to it. People have even been impressed that it will hold 128 songs!
It’s at a great price point for kids to save their money up to buy and cheap enough for someone that’s unsure of it to give it a try without feeling like they’ve thrown their money away.
Man, they STILL can’t keep shuffles in stock around here. Maybe it’s weak demand overall. Like with any “analyst” article, show me the cold hard numbers to justify your stance. Could be the publication trying to piggyback off of other headlines where Apple selling over 5 million units of iPods mean that it is the end of Apple.
I take this as good news. This means that they are selling a larger proportion of regular iPods and Minis in the mix than they anticipated. This means more money for Apple.
It would be BAD if shuffles canibalized sales of the larger iPods.
The shuffles are doing what they are intended to do. Provide a product that a 12 year old can save up for and get them “hooked” into the iPod-iTunes platform for many years.
We won’t know for sure until Apple releases figures for iPod sales in July. They don’t break down sales by individual model, but it was estimated that Apple sold over one million shuffles in the 2 months of February and March alone. So I doubt that iPod shuffle sales over just the past 3 months since then have slowed all that much…
People are routinely upselling themselves on iPods and CPUs. They walk in wanting a shuffle and end up with a much better model for a small increment in price. The MacMini is doing the same for iMac sales. People have even been known to come in looking for an iPod only to find out that it won’t work with their obsolete hardware/OS (usually WinTel) and they end up with an iMac or iBook AND an iPod.
Earlier market share figures indicated that the Shuffle had taken 58% of the flash player market in just a couple of months (these were posted on MDN).
If the Shuffle is indeed growing at less than Apple’s expectations (or someone else’s expectations), that means the entire flash player market was projected to grow unrealistically fast.
Apple should be pleased, as should any Apple fan.
The minimalist iPod Shuffle never did it for me. Some people just want to see what they’re doing. The no-screen design is too annoying to pass off as being cute.
The minimalist iPod Shuffle never did it for me. Some people just want to see what they’re doing. The no-screen design is too annoying to pass off as being cute.
The minimalist iPod Shuffle never did it for me. Some people just want to see what they’re doing. The no-screen design is too annoying to pass off as being cute.
When I first saw the iPod Shuffle I thought:
Wow! That sucks!
And then I tried it out for myself and I thought:
I was right. It does suck!
—
But, I’m just one guy – a Mac user. There couldn’t possibly be a bunch of people who share my view:
iPod Shuffle sucks!
When I first saw the iPod Shuffle I thought:
Wow! That sucks!
And then I tried it out for myself and I thought:
I was right. It does suck!
—
But, I’m just one guy – a Mac user. There couldn’t possibly be a bunch of people who share my view:
iPod Shuffle sucks!
When I first saw the iPod Shuffle I thought:
Wow! That sucks!
And then I tried it out for myself and I thought:
I was right. It does suck!
—
But, I’m just one guy – a Mac user. There couldn’t possibly be a bunch of people who share my view:
iPod Shuffle sucks!
Corroboration:
According to new data from NPD Techworld, Apple’s share of flash players in the US, which stood at 58.2 per cent in March, declined to 52 per cent in May.
That equates to a 10.7% drop in market share for the iPod shuffle. Man, it’s a little chilly down there in Hell…and was that just a PIG that flew by???
RT-
See my last post. The shuffle’s share of the market is shrinking. That means that other flash-based players are experiencing sales GROWTH, not decline.
I’m not sure if this story is related to the one that Reuters recently published where they were saying that there were ten thousand unsold iPods shuffles piling up in the distribution chain in the US. Therefore the iPod is doomed.
Most observers agree that Apple will sell about 5.5 million iPods this quarter. That means they are selling about 60,000 per day, or 2,500 per hour for every hour of the day.
So this massive pile of 10,000 Shuffles that’s causing so much concern represents the number of iPods sold in four hours.
That doesn’t sound like a particularly worrying amount of unsold inventory to me.