macnn
12/03/2008, 12:15pm, EST
Wednesday, December 3rd
iPod touch shortages deepening to include all iPods?
iPods are becoming increasingly difficult to find in the wake of last week's Black Friday sales, says Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Immediately following the sales, the only vendor to report any shortages was Amazon, which lengthened its lead times to 11 days for the 8GB iPod touch, and three to five weeks for the 16GB player. The company's situation has since been made even worse however, with 8GB lead times matching those of the 16GB model, making it virtually impossible to buy an 8GB player in time for Christmas.
Shortages are further said to be expanding, going beyond the Touch and Amazon to include small-scale depletions of Touches, Nanos and Shuffles at outlets like Best Buy, Crutchfield, Target and Walmart. Wu contends that the sell-outs are unexpected in light of the ongoing recession, but may be attributable to a reasonable average selling price and matching public interest. Kaufman is holding to a prediction of 21 million in iPod shipments for the December quarter, which would be a rise of 90 percent over the September quarter, but a drop of 5 percent from the December 2007 quarter.
Filed under: iPod, Investor, Apple
Other story tags: iPod touch, iPod nano, iPod shuffle
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come on...
...are we honestly expected to believe this? Let's face it, the iPod ain't no WiiFit or "Beedle The Bard". This is the kind of contrived phoney hype we expect from "other" companies. The Wii shortages were real, this is cynical Apple marketing crap. All they have to do is choke the supply line for a week and it's instant news and instant demand. Pathetic!
What?
That's a lot to assume Feathers. It makes perfect sense that Apple drastically reduce iPod production in light of the economy. Especially if Apple wanted to make sure they clear inventory prior to MWSF.
or
Wu contends that the sell-outs are unexpected in light of the ongoing recession, but may be attributable to a reasonable average selling price and matching public interest.
Or it could be due to Apple sending out limited number of units to the retailers, and trying to keep as much of the sales in-house as possible (will make the Retail stores look full and give them good sales numbers for the quarter).
Re: come on...
Beedle the what?
All Hail Feathers!
He who knows all, sees all, divines all, understands all, recognizes all, and brings succor to the lost! Gawd, but how uneasy must lie the head of one who can so easily pierce the veil of lies and chicanery that is international corporate machinations!
Or, to put it more succinctly . . . Phhhhttt! You know nothing, sir. You are an imbecilic poseur and should be pitied AND censured.
Say it ain't so!
But the "anal-ists" are always right and they're all atwitter that iPod sales are slumping to oblivion. Oh my!!! How can there not be any iPods available to people who aren't supposed to be buying them???!!!!
Indeed
Testudo - I have about zero percent interest in Harry Potter but even I know what beedle the bard is.
As for the shortage. Yes, it's amusing there is a shortage at the same time analysts have been predicting gloom, but it actually suggests third party resellers have been conservative in their stocking/orders, as I equally imagine that Apple, like most firms, avoids holding inventory, but will be manufacturing to order.
No shortages due to
no no iPod sales. I'd heard that people stopped buying iPods some time ago. Apparently everbody in the world that wanted one already had one. So let's see, now. The sales are imagined and the shortages are fabrications. I'm ready to believe that Apple employees are going into stores and just taking iPods off the shelves to put in a warehouse somewhere. Then miraculously a couple of days before Christmas when people are in a frenzy from pent-up demand, Apple will release them a few at a time to create artificially produced long lines outside of stores, thereby initiating massive pre-Christmas media buzz. Apple is truly devious. I hope the plan works.
Analyst Wu called this
When he said earlier this week that Apple should have had more aggressive discounts for Black Friday. If I think I will sell all I can make, why would I lower the price, again?