“Apple Computer Inc.’s hot digital music players may be better associated with the Cupertino, California, company’s hip Apple Stores, but over the past few months, they’ve also started to pop up next to less exotic products in special vending machines built by Zoom Systems,” Robert McMillan reports for IDG News Service. “Since April, the San Francisco company has been selling iPods across the U.S. in ‘robotic product delivery systems’ (don’t say the words ‘vending machine’ around Zoom Systems executives; they find the term archaic). The first iPods were sold in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and the players can now be found in “Zoom Shop” machines operating in malls, hotels and grocery stores across the country, the company said.”
McMillan reports, “Though Zoom Shops sell plenty of other products, including digital cameras and snacks, the iPod is the top seller, said Rick Cusick, Zoom Systems’ executive vice president of merchandising. ‘It seems to unleash an incredible impulse opportunity,’ he said. ‘You can walk up and buy and iPod in 20 seconds.’ …Having just phased out the iPod Minis, the company is now selling the iPod Shuffle and iPod nano in its machines. Next month, it plans to begin selling Apple’s latest video-enabled iPods.”
Full article here.
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