iLounge

1

I hate to say “I told you so” to all those people in the mini forum, but…. “I told you so”.

Posted by dave on February 27, 2004 at 6:46 AM (PST)

2

Dave - right on! I second that “I told you so”!

Posted by Chris on February 27, 2004 at 7:57 AM (PST)

3

I really don’t understand the folks who didn’t see this coming.  I never really thought I would be an iPod owner until the mini came out, and now I am.  I knew there would be a lot of other folks in my boat.

Posted by Nicky G on February 27, 2004 at 8:34 AM (PST)

4

That Danika Cleary is a beauty. I will forgo at least two minis for one Danika.

Posted by Agent Orange on February 27, 2004 at 9:46 AM (PST)

5

better make bigger charts

Posted by bkush on February 27, 2004 at 9:59 AM (PST)

6

Not a big surprise.  When the original iPod came out, no one knew what it was.  It took a long time to build breakneck momentum.

Everyone knows what an iPod is now.  They barely have to market them.  Even people I know who have other players end up saying something like “It’s like an iPod, you know, plays downloaded music?” at least once a month.

Posted by stark23x on February 27, 2004 at 10:26 AM (PST)

7

This is simply another example of, “Cute sells.” If you haven’t realized this by now then I don’t know what I can tell you, there are people out there who will and continue to buy smaller things that are priced the same as a more useable(?) thing.

Ex: Someone buys a small 8oz coke compared to a 12oz at the same price because the 8oz has a “cuter” container.

Posted by (T)(C)(O) in Tennessee on February 27, 2004 at 1:01 PM (PST)

8

the ipod mini shall fail! no one will buy it! you’ll see! all of you will!

Posted by tear on February 27, 2004 at 1:19 PM (PST)

9

What stark said is correct. It’s a pretty poor comparison between iPod mini and the original iPod. a better comparison is 3G iPods and the iPod mini.

Posted by Harrison in Melbourne, Australia on February 27, 2004 at 1:24 PM (PST)

10

I think the issue is not whether the iPod Mini succeeds, but whether it succeeds in moving the iPod market share past 30% without cannabilizing more expensive and higher-margin iPod Maxi sales.

Apple is banking, literally, that the availability of the iPod Mini will not diminish sales of $350+ iPods in favour of sales of $250 iPod Minis.

iPod Mini will be a success if it attracts interest from the “Rio People” - those people who might have spent $100-$150 on a Rio or similar but now are tempted to save a bit more, stretch a bit more, to buy a $250 iPod Mini.

If it works, Apple wins because those people would not ever have splurged on a $350 iPod Maxi. If it doesn’t work, and Apple ends up cannabilizing its own iPod sales, expect difficult results from them because they will show slow or static revenue growth from iPod sales with decreasing gross margins.

That my friend is how you should judge if the iPod Mini is a success or a failure. It will take arouns 6-9 months to realise which.

Posted by phyrric victory on February 27, 2004 at 4:14 PM (PST)

11

Danika MooVs:

http://stream.qtv.apple.com/qtv/acst/http/002003/062203/isight_product_manager_300.mov

http://stream.qtv.apple.com/qtv/acst/http/002003/062203/out_of_the_box_300.mov

Posted by Mortimer on February 28, 2004 at 3:41 AM (PST)

12

nah! this is bull form apple just to sell. iPod mini is crap in every sense, from the design to the concept.
so only 2 remain:
1 - IPod mini will colapse and 4th Gen Ipod will kill it.

2 - Americans are not evolved somehow…they fail to see how much of a stupid deal is Ipod mini

Posted by 5th Raider on February 28, 2004 at 6:34 PM (PST)

13

Of course the minis early sales are even better than the ipods.  As has been pointed out everyone knows what an MP3 player is now but more importantly the mini has a huge advantage over the ipod when it was first launched.  The mini is campatable with windows users right out of the gates.  That is why you can’t really make the comparison.  How total ipod sales mini and std do is the real measure of success.

Posted by crl on February 29, 2004 at 11:01 AM (PST)

14

Raider, you are on major crack. How is the iPod mini crap in concept? It’s a smaller version of an already small thing that comes in cool colors. Think about it- how could that NOT sell?

Posted by Red Rain on March 1, 2004 at 8:25 AM (PST)

15

I got the green one. And loving it. Apple, bring in the orange color. A light orange.

Posted by tj on March 1, 2004 at 7:54 PM (PST)

16

Ha ha, just read the post by ‘tear’ about how we’ll all see the iPod mini failing. I think it’s already been proven that he was wrong. So ‘tear’, who’s crying now?

Posted by MusicMan on July 9, 2004 at 3:52 PM (PST)