iLounge

1

Just saw this on CNN Headline News. Apparently iPod mini is delay to July. Im glad I bought one already. Still waiting for stable firmware.

Posted by WoW on March 25, 2004 at 12:23 PM (PDT)

2

Too bad about Hitachi, but if one were to listen to the critics (read: iPod hatas) it doesn’t matter much since the iPod mini is a failure.

In all seriousness, this sucks as a AAPL shareholder.  I had read April for a UK release, now it’s maybe-I’ll-try-someone-else’s-mp3-player-because-I-won’t-wait-for-July 2004?  Bad luck for everyone involved.

http://www.homepage.mac.com/cherrypop/

Posted by matthew on March 25, 2004 at 2:03 PM (PDT)

3

wouldnt it be funny if Hitachi were to nock up the cost of their HD to applesay $25 (assuming they dont have a huge contract already???)(prob do)

but i cant see apple raising its prices…and would they be selling at a loss?

Posted by rivlinm on March 25, 2004 at 2:19 PM (PDT)

4

What annoys me is apples mantra of under producing a product. they always have shortages of their new products.

now that they are playing in the windows world someone needs to tell them that you need to start producing 10 times the amount of product than they use to calculate for.

when their financials come out, it will give us a good indication of what their forecast their June sales targets to be globally. we know sony has sold over 80 million mini disc walkmans, so these should be the kinds of numbers apple should be aiming for, considering the majority of those sony sales are in japan alone.

733,000 ipods last quartar was good, but man apple needs to be aiming at 3 million a quarter. only then can they say they are taking on sony successfully.

owning 50% of this industry is playing in the big league, its time they started to think and plan like the big league.

don’t get me wrong, i love apple (especially my powerbook), but as a shareholder, i think they should be doing better.

Posted by stevo on March 25, 2004 at 3:44 PM (PDT)

5

Well, I wouldn’t say that its intentional the fact that Apple underproduced. Their explanation of the matter is that they did not expect such a tremendous demand.

I believe that, even though I still find it hard to come to terms with why the iPod mini is so popular, when it is much lacking in disk space for not much less. Is it really all about the aesthetics?

Posted by Sraphim on March 25, 2004 at 4:30 PM (PDT)

6

“I believe that, even though I still find it hard to come to terms with why the iPod mini is so popular, when it is much lacking in disk space for not much less. Is it really all about the aesthetics?”

Many Apple products experience a huge burst of pent-up demand during the first 3 months or so. Apple’s early adopters are among the most eager in the industry. The Cube was a*huge* seller… at first. Of course, the issue is whether that demand rises or falls after three months.

Posted by DemandSurge on March 25, 2004 at 4:55 PM (PDT)

7

I remembered in some of my business classes in college that you always want to produce “under” demand.  Reason is that money spent making product that does not end up selling them all is a loss but there is also the added benefit that producing under the amount when introducing a new product causes the population to desire it more thus creating more demand when the news and people you know say it is hard to get thus making you think it is cooler than it is.

Posted by Carl on March 26, 2004 at 1:07 AM (PDT)

8

I remembered in some of my business classes in college that you always want to produce “under” demand.

Problem is that this is real life, and Apple has a track record. 

http://homepage.mac.com/cherrypop/

Posted by matthew on March 26, 2004 at 3:49 AM (PDT)

9

What’s mantra mean.

Posted by Lajo on March 26, 2004 at 8:10 AM (PDT)