“Citing initial channel checks, analysts at Baird U.S. Equity Research are reporting that there appears to be muted demand for Apple Computer’s second-generation iPod nano so far, which could have negative implications for NAND flash pricing,” Slash Lane reports for AppleInsider. “‘We believe Apple did not meet its NAND flash order schedule this month,’ analyst Tristan Gerra wrote in a note to SanDisk investors on Monday.”
MacDailyNews Take: We believe just about anyone can call themselves an “analyst.”
Lane continues, quoting Gerra, “‘While it is difficult to assess the performance of the new nano product family as Apple retailers have been directed to not comment about the iPod’s sales performance, the initial feedback we are receiving from industry sources suggests nano volumes are not as strong as in the same period a year ago, which we do not view as a surprise given the new nano offering’s lack of new feature set besides higher density.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Lack of new feature set? Apple’s 2nd generation iPod nano offers a new aluminum case design which is a smaller, thinner and lighter design that comes in several new color choices, increased battery life to 24-hours, provides new Search and Quick Scroll features, new support for gapless playback, a compact USB power adapter which is nearly half the size of the previous iPod nano USB power adapter, along with offering more than twice the music capacity for the same price as the previous generation iPod nano.
Lane continues, “It should be noted that Gerra’s previous reports on Apple and its plans for the iPod nano were not particularly accurate. In July, the analyst backed other Wall Street analysts in saying Apple’s second-generation iPod nano would see an approximate 2-month delay that would prevent the players from making their way to market until some time this November.”
Full article here.
In a related article, AppleInsider reports, “Analysts for Citgroup on Monday said they expect Apple Computer to sell as many as 18.8 million iPods during the December quarter… Analyst Richard Gardner told clients in a research note on Monday [that] for the third calendar quarter ending September… He is modeling for sales of 9 million iPods during the quarter, including 5 million iPod nanos and 1 million iPod shuffles.”
Gardner also estimated iPod shipments for the fourth calendar quarter, writing, “we raised our iPod shipment estimate from 16.0M to 18.8M to reflect an increase in ‘nano’ shipments from 8.5M to 10.0M and an increase in ‘shuffle’ shipments from 2.5M to 4.0M,'” AppleInsider reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: For reference, in the third calendar quarter 2005 (Apple’s fiscal 4th quarter), Apple shipped 6.451 million iPods (all models). In the fourth calendar quarter 2005 (holiday), Apple shipped a record 14.043 million iPods (all models).
Related articles:
Thurrott reviews Apple’s 2G iPod nano: ‘the best small-sized media player on the market today’ – September 25, 2006
USA Today reviews new Apple iPod nanos, updated iPods, iTunes 7 (each earns 4 stars out of 4) – September 21, 2006
CNET Editor’s Pick: Apple’s new 2G iPod nano – ‘sure to be top choice among wide range of users’ – September 14, 2006
Apple intros new iPod nano with new aluminum design in five colors and 24-hour battery life – September 12, 2006
Maybe people are waiting to see what Microsoft has. As much as I don’t like them, competition is good for us. Apple needs a little competition in the iPod business.
– Mark
as long as I benefit from the struggle… I don’t care who wins
And Apple will be laughing all the way to the bank when they have yet another record breaking Christmas sales quarter. These anal-ysts are idiots. Next story….
Or maybe everyone who wants an iPod nano already has one & is not gonna buy another one anytime soon.
Any guy with Tristan for a monicker has got to get it wrong most of the time.
“Apple needs a little competition in the iPod business.”
<sarcasm>
Yeah because the iPod and iTunes solution has been so lacking in features and usability.
</sarcasm>
Just bought two 4gig nanos for my friends, getting seven shuffles for my family this Christmas. Simple!! (1 nano, 1 shuffle last year)
Just give it a little time.
Many people still do not know the difference in the past model and this model. And as new iPods roll out, more people will buy.
I had a friend that thought the new model my co-worker purchased was the old iPod Mini- because of the color!
Really, it is a product…… no earth axis off-set :’
Or maybe it’s just not as “shocking” as the nano of last year. Remember your reaction to the very first nano? The new one is nice. But it’s not the revolution of the first one. Although the new shuffle is impressive. I’m thinking of buying one to supplement my 4G 40GB iPod.
Still, how much would you bet that the new nano is on a lot of people’s holiday wish lists?
I plan on getting one after 07, just waiting for my moneys to come in.
I’d like to buy Nanos for the other two guys in my band. Neither of them is very computer savvy. If I gave them Nanos they would be filled with all of the songs we play so there would be no excuse for not listening to and learning the material. There would be no CDs to lose and no bulky portable CD player to carry around or skip.
I wish Apple still made a 1gig Nano and offered it for $99, I’d buy’em for the band then for sure, I may anyway but $200 would be easier to swallow than $300.
I have several friends who are excited by the reduction in price of the Apple HD based iPods. As the price of iPods goes down I thiink there is another whole market to discover.
BS and FUD
I am still using my 6gig iPod mini. This thing refuses to break or die out. When that time comes, then I will get a new one.
I have mentioned this before, but I think Apple should have coloured the click wheel with the same colour as the casing.
Like the black. (In my opinion the best looking one)
It would have made the difference between the old mini’s greater. (The mini’s were fabulous… but this retro design might be too soon)
‘HD’
I wish Apple still made a 1gig Nano and offered it for $99, I’d buy’em for the band then for sure, I may anyway but $200 would be easier to swallow than $300.
Dude, go to the Apple Store and look for the special deals RED tag. Go there and Apple has many of the old iPods heavily discounted.
Later
This looks more like an “anal list”
MW:head-I ain’t touchin’ that one.
To tell you the truth, I really don’t see THAT much of a difference between the two. Yes it has colors, and that’s cool. But most people just got the iPod Nano and probably won’t see a reason to spend that much money again.
I’m not upgrading my iPod until they have some incredible breakthrough. Hopefully bluetooth enabled so we’ll be able to connect to a car… 😀
~Caleb
I believe anyone can call themselves a publisher.
I would get a new 8 GB nano if it still looked like a miniature iPod instead of a miniature, er, Mini.
Shawn Wu (analyst) last year in September said exactly the same thing regarding the new iPod nano, refering to slow white version sales and a lack of overall sell-through…
We all know how accurate Mr. Wu was with those “channel checks.”
Please.
MP3 players are way to expensive for what they are. All of them. Apple included.
Every year around this time people talk about lackluster iPod sales. Stock price dips.
Then Apple sells an obscene amount of iPods. Sale price rockets up.
Guess who benefits?
Just got an 80 GB to complement my 60 GB, 4 GB Nano, and ancient Shuffle.
Gave the “old” 60 to my son.
Using Handbrake, I loaded half a dozen movies for a trip last week, and watched James Bond on a full-sized TV in the rental condo. Really remarkable.
At the airport, I listened to 3 hours of instructional Spanish Tapes imported off cassette with Wire Tap Pro, and jammed with music during the flight.
At the tradeshow, I referred to my calendar, and used the contacts to make calls.
Damned versatile device.
MDN: Lack of new feature set? Apple’s 2nd generation iPod nano offers a new aluminum case design which is a smaller, thinner and lighter design that comes in several new color choices, increased battery life to 24-hours, provides new Search and Quick Scroll features, new support for gapless playback, a compact USB power adapter which is nearly half the size of the previous iPod nano USB power adapter, along with offering more than twice the music capacity for the same price as the previous generation iPod nano.
Yeah, yeah yeah…. You can defend till your blue in the face, but the guys got a legitimate point… I mean let’s be realisitc here, last year when the orignial nano was released, it was a radical change compared to the mini…. The second generation revisions are minor in comparison. Same goes for full size iPod…
Though these changes and price-cuts are welcome, I fear they are not enough to top last years holiday iPod sales of 14 million… Just not enough reasons for current owners to upgrade.
BTW… As an AAPL share-holder, I hope I’m wrong about my above statement.
Actually, we should not be ostriches and stick our heads in the sand. This report should be a concern, even if it turns out to be wrong. For example, I noticed that the iPod is no longer the #1 best-seller in the MP3 player category on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/172630/ref=pd_ts_e_nav/102-5264406-9273756
The #1 seller is a SanDisk player, and perhaps not coincidentallyl, the #1 selling accessory is a 2 GB SD card sold by Sandisk. It also should be significant that the #3 player is also SanDisk.
The iPod nano doesn’t show up until #4, and that’s actually the 1G black nano. The new 2G nano doesn’t show up until #9.
So while Amazon top seller list isn’t a complete picture, the fact is, this pattern is very different from the past when you would have to go to #5 or #6 to find a non-iPod model.
Apple can’t rest on its laurels. I hope Apple is also worried and really ratchets up the advertising campaign to counteract the small but rising anti-iPod movement. With the introduction of movie downloads, it would appear the nano is in danger of being ignored.
This is the same phantom “muted demand” story they run every time Apple releases a new iPod, and then once Apple announces its sales numbers, it blows everyone away.
can’t be! I just bought one for my mom, like 3 days ago.
so far, i alredy order a green nano and the new shuffle.
here in the canary islands it take a little more time.
with this pre-order i will complete my collection of a 2gb white and 4gb black nano, 1gb shuffle, 4th gen ipod 40gb 5th gen 30gb video and of course a 4gb mini.
f*** al this ana**** it’s just there little monopoly-game for laught
even if current users don’t upgrade, i think there are plenty more people who don’t have an ipod at all
Many, many people hate Apple. Why? Who knows, but it’s true. They just hate Apple.
…..a compact USB power adapter which is nearly half the size of the previous iPod nano USB power adapter
OOOhhh…AAAAhhh…. a smaller power adapter…. I’m buying one now!
isn’t this more exciting, say?
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/europe_apple_granted_patent_regarding_networked_media_station
BTW, as of lately, macsimumnews seem to pick up much more news than MDN. Also, alot earlier.
I personally thought the original nano looked a lot sleeker. But perhaps the toughness of the units is more important than Apple originally thought.
Even if Apple only sell 19M this Xmas, that still means they sold 44 M iPods this calendar year. Not too shabby considering. Probably means close to 100 M pods sold in the last 5 years.
I think the mac sales will be startling, plus the pod profit will be immense.
Demand for the nano has absolutely nothing to do with interest in the Zune. That is ridiculous. The reason for lack of nano demand is that people are awaiting the next product from Apple, whether it be an iPhone or an iPod WideScreen Edition. People are tired of being burned by Apple, when they buy a new product and it becomes obsolete. THAT is the real issue.
The Thing is though is that these changes were not to wow the previous nano owners into buying a new nano. The tactic of creating the colored nanos was an awesome business strategy.
Apple isnt trying to get anyone to get rid of their current Nanos or Videopods, they are going after the previous generation to finally upgrade.
Lots of people purchased Minis, then the nanos came out, and many of those people didnt upgrade, because their current Mini was fine. Now i think Apple is trying to go after people who already own a cute pink Mini…
Weren’t there similar reports about the first gen. nano not selling well about this time last year? Then it became Apple’s best seller ever.
I don’t believe a word of this report.
G2, thanks for the heads up about http://www.macsimumnews.com. I really need to ween myself from MDN.. The ads are getting ridiculous.
People are tired of being burned by Apple, when they buy a new product and it becomes obsolete. THAT is the real issue.
————-
Actually, that is not a real issue at all, but you do win the award for the moronic statment of the day..
What have “new features” got to do with anything.
Are they saying that iPod owners will compare it to what they have and decide not to buy a new iPod ? duh! existing customers aren’t the target buyers at this point. Any iPod nano owner would still have a practically new device in their hands at the moment, they’re not looking for a new one.
Are they saying that the competition has matched last year’s nano features and form factor ? Please show me just one example of a product competing on par with even last year’s nano. Can’t … well I figured you wouldn’t.
Waiting for M$’s Zune to come out ? That’s not comparing apples to apples (no pun intended). The Zune isn’t aimed at the nano. It can’t even hold a candle to the HD iPod. Who’s gonna wait for something that’s not even in the same product category.
So, what was the point about lack luster feature improvement ?
This isn’t a software you upgrade, it’s consumer electronics. You buy to replace you existing product or acquire a product you don’t have. In both cases, the nano is still on top and would be so even without a 2nd generation.
PC geeks applying their stereotyped reasoning to a completely diferent product type. Flawed reasoning in their own field isn’t going to get any better in a different one.
You know, the nano’s had its spot, and it’s time to move on.
That’s Apple anyway, they have something different around the corner.
altos
couldn’t have put it simpler myself . . nice one
RC said: Actually, that is not a real issue at all, but you do win the award for the moronic statment of the day..
And you win the Apple-Fan-Boy-of-the-Month-Who-Can’t-See-the-Forest-Through-the-Trees Award, loser.
At least it is good to know animated characters from Toy Story can access the internet and make comments on MDN, RC.
“Lack of new feature set? Apple’s 2nd generation iPod nano offers a new aluminum case design which is a smaller, thinner and lighter design that comes in several new color choices, increased battery life to 24-hours, provides new Search and Quick Scroll features, new support for gapless playback, a compact USB power adapter which is nearly half the size of the previous iPod nano USB power adapter, along with offering more than twice the music capacity for the same price as the previous generation iPod nano.”
WTF.. you call that ‘innovation’? it’s nowhere near new, cool, or even meaningful. Let alone attract those who’ve waited so long for the much hyped true video iPod.
Maybe music phones are starting to have an impact. If so, expect an iPhone sooner rather than later.
Just goes to show how fickle consumers are. They’re always looking for the next radically different thing. Apple, on the other hand, believes that once they’ve reached perfection in design they shouldn’t mess with it.
I was a fan of the iPod mini, and I wished Apple had continued that line and kept increasing the capacity as new 1-inch drives were released. These iPod nanos are as much a return of the iPod mini style as they are the new version of the nano. Having played with them at the Apple Store, I have to say the new ones are more “classy” than the old plastic-shelled versions.
Note that Citi’s “analyst” downgraded the stock today but nevertheless raised his estimates for earnings and iPods to the highs on the street . . . In other words, he’s bearish on the stock, so he’s raised expectations in the hope that the company will miss and he will look right. What a dishonest hack.
Didn’t we go through this with the original Nano? At first, they said sales were slow, but then where did they go? So whatever they say, it really doesn’t matter. Christmas season will tell
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RC-
Your thoughts on Apple not making 14 million this Chirstmas season are probably more fear-based than market driven.
1. Apple’s WW channel has increased greatly, espically in the EU, Japan and S. Korea.
2. Demand in the US is near a peak, but Apple will be able to ride the peak demand through the season.
3. The iPod has taken off much slower across the EU, as the store was much slower to be released in the EU – roughly a year behind the US. Factor this with a large % of EU market share to obtain, and the WW demand of iPods is poised for a strong upswing over the next six-months.
WW demand for iPod up, more channels, US to remain strong, Apple will be pushing the 18 million-mark for the December quarter (Apple’s Q1).
Movie download dominance is Apple’s next immediate target.
1. iTV
2. HD Downloads
3. Full-screen 720 x 400 iPod video
4. HDTV’s with iTV built-in
5. Multiple studio’s signed up with iTunes
This is the massive MWSF ’07 push. The iPhone will come later.
I’m a brainwashed Apple freak, but I’ve gotta say I was disappointed by the new Nanos. Went to buy one for a friend, but when I picked it up it just felt cheap and like a smaller Mini. Definitely didn’t have the wow factor of the original Nano (which I bought right away).
My point is that while it’s technically an improvement, the new Nano design just isn’t the slam-dunk that the old one was, so I’d expect sales to be good but unremarkable.
If the iPod nano’s aren’t flying off the shelves (and I don’t know if they are or not), then it MAY be because they are pretty much the iPod mini’s with a color screen.
While stepping it up in features, it seems Apple sort of stepped back as far as design with the new nano. Think about it: If the iPod mini was updated last year instead of being discontinued, then what would it look like? Smaller, thinner and with a color screen.
In other words: Exactly like the new iPod nano.
Let alone attract those who’ve waited so long for the much hyped true video iPod.
————————–
Marquez, the much hyped “true video iPod” is a rumored product. It was never promised by Apple, it’s the rumor mill and peoples wishsful thinking that have created a buzz about a non-existent product. If you are waiting around for all the supposed Apple products that you read about on rumor sites, you are going to be sorely dissappointed, as it sounds like you already are.
They need to DROP THE PRICE.
The new Nano costs much less to make than the old, yet the price of it is relatively static. Apple’s competitors are selling similar devices (capacity wise) for cheaper. Therefore, people are going for the cheaper alternative.
Apple’s squeezing the meat of the iPod line for profit right now, because their new Macintels are MUCH more expensive to make than their PPC predecessors. They aren’t making as much money on the computers (per unit) and they are trying to make it up with the iPods. Unfortunately, we are seeing the result – you can only abuse the golden goose for so long before that has an effect on how frequently it will give you eggs.
Apple risks ruining a good thing here, all so their bottom line isn’t too damaged by higher-priced Intel kit. Well, they made that bed and should just lie in it. If the computers are a drag on profits then they need to work on THAT problem without upsetting other areas of their business.
Keeping iPod (& the iTS) market position dominant is very important for the future of the company now. It should be better protected.
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We’re all saving and waiting for the Video iPod – Hurrah !!
– the zune killer !!
I bought a 2gb nano about a week ago and they were nearly out of them at the store where I bought it.
Apple’s competitors are selling similar devices (capacity wise) for cheaper.
—————–
Show me one.. Bet you can’t…
“Apple iPod nano demand muted?”
Only in the deaf market.
I kindof liked the looks of the last gen a little better, I respect the new one, and I understand why its different; it truely is better, screen is more protected.. but the look of the regular ipod is more appearling to me, even if it scratches easier.