iLounge

“‘We’ve been running around for the past couple of days trying to find it,’ said 16-year-old Joey Balinski, looking downcast after coming up iPod-less at another store. ‘I would have asked for it for Christmas a couple of years ago, but I figured by now it would be easier to find. [...]

‘It still beat our overestimating expectations,’ said Kawika Holbrook, assistant manager at the Apple Store at Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair, noting his store had sold thousands since Thanksgiving. Plus, fate may have conspired against a few iPod lovers. A large FedEx MD-10 airplane that caught fire Thursday in Memphis had a load of iPods on it, Holbrook said. ‘The picture was being passed around the Net, and we were like, ‘No!’ ‘Apple has not said whether any iPods were damaged, or whether that affected late-season availability.”

“When Apple Computer Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs takes the stage at MacWorld next month, analysts expect him to unveil smaller, cheaper iPods and hope he will detail the company’s strategy to move into the digital living room.

The lower-end iPods, which are expected to carry a price tag of about $100 and will hold 400 to 800 songs, are a necessary answer to the bevy of MP3 digital music players now on the market that cost $100 or less, analysts said. [...]

In addition to the lower-cost iPods, the Cupertino, California-based Apple is also expected to unveil them with different colors and even in stripes, as well as variously colored cases for Apple’s traditional iPods, according to Enderle and Mac rumor Web site Thinksecret.com.”

“John Lewis had also sold out of the iPod, and was warning customers they may have to wait until mid January to get their hands on the product. Dan Knowles is the company’s director of buying for electrical goods.

He said: ‘We have sold over 2,500 iPods in the run-up to Christmas, which is a lot for such a highly priced product. It just seems to have that cool factor somehow, it’s a truly iconic product already. I don’t think there is a secret to it, it’s just a really, really good product.’

However, those in the industry are unsurprised by the success. Gadget magazine Stuff voted the iPod its number-one gadget from a list of 100 products. Gary Parkinson, deputy editor, said: ‘There has been phenomenal interest in the iPod. I don’t think we have ever experienced anything like it for a gadget.’”

“Mike Khalfey, central buyer for electronics at John Lewis department stores, said so many people wanted an iPod they were having to take orders for delivery after Christmas.

‘The demand is certainly outstripping supply,’ he said, adding that the most popular model was the middle of the range 20GB iPod for £299.

‘We are getting shipments once or twice a week but we are selling them almost as fast as they come in.’”

“Round Rock-based Dell Inc. stopped reselling Apple’s iPods in mid-November, about two weeks after the company launched its own competing MP3 player.

“We’ve stopped selling them permanently,” said Mary Fad, a Dell spokeswoman.

Both Apple and Dell declined to explain why the two companies scrapped their reselling agreement.”

‘As soon as we began to review the results for this year’s poll it became clear that there was one standout winner: the iPod and iTunes, along with the revolutionary iTunes Music Store. So many people wrote in saying that these products had “changed the way they live’, or they “can’t imagine life without them” that we imagine Apple will use just such a slogan in an upcoming ad campaign.

We have awarded the Best Product award jointly to iPod and iTunes (including the iTunes Music Store). As one reader said, “Even without the iPod or the iTunes Music Store, iTunes is a truly-awesome application, throw in the other two and it’s unstoppable.’”

“Danionics supplied polymer lithium-ion batteries for the current Apple iPod, but according to Niels Kryger Anderson, Danionics’ managing director, Apple has now chosen a prismatic (fluid based) lithium-ion battery for upcoming iPods.

Implications/advantages of changing from polymer to fluid based Lithium ion based batteries is unclear.”“

“Unlike 99% of campaigns, the creatives’ job here is simply not to blow the product’s cool.

The campaign is simple and iconic, a subtle evolution of Apple’s tried-and-tested formula. The only innovation is that it uses neon hues, rather than the traditional white backdrop.

Apple supremo Steve Jobs - who takes a hands-on approach to marketing - needed a little persuading to make even this revolutionary step, according to TBWA agency head Lee Clow.”

“In a new online consumer survey conducted by New Media Strategies (NMS), 54% of respondents say they will spend more this holiday shopping season than they did last year. [...]

NMS projects that Hollywood should have another stellar year as movie DVDs dominate wish lists for Electronic Gifts at 43%, followed by video games at 29%. Apple’s iPod (6%), stereo equipment (6%) and plasma TVs (5%) round out the Top Five Electronic Gifts on Holiday Wish Lists for consumers.”

“PortalPlayer, the company behind the hardware, software and processor technology that powers Apple’s iPod, will soon launch a upgraded version of its chip/firmware combo that paves the way for a Photo iPod.

PortalPlayer Photo Edition will support synchronising digital photos between portable devices and host PCs, along with on-device playback, according to CEO Gary Johnson,interviewed by EE Times.”