You sound like a good friend to be doing this for your buddy. Doesn't sound like too much difference for one of these other toys: Ticke me Elmo, PS2, things like that, that really have demand.

prolly more than "just a friend" if you get my drift...

I have been playing with my iPod mini since day before yesterday when it arrived at my door...I pre-ordered it and it came early. No sweat. Sorry for those who didn't, but what was stopping them?

When a company makes me jump through hoops so I can give them a large chunk of my money, I chortle and happily buy a competitor's available product instead.

Why can't Apple ever seem to make enough of their good products, while they're invariably swimming in the stinkers (like Cubes)?

i think you answered your own stupid question.

good product = high demand = short supply

bad product = low demand = overstock

you'll buy it now if you cannot hold it. you'll buy it later when you have thought about it for a while and the price dropped a little, and you've seen your friends' and you like them. and by then, they will be available at your 7-Eleven.

Er, yes - thanks for the simplistic Econ 101 talk. The real question is (nearly as rhetorical as the last), why are they so poor at predicting the winners? They're invariably bitten in the a** by their own success, and they do lose sales and reputation for it. It's not a good sign when you can't deliver a mass consumer product on time to the consumer masses who want it. I very nearly cancelled my last iBook order and just bought a Linux notebook. There's a certain benefit to being able to run OS X, but a whole other benefit to having it a month and a half earlier so I can actually use it.

The point is that Apple's supply problems should be solved by now. Actually a long time before now. The signup sheets and waiting lists don't signal cachet, but instead lack of professionalism.

Clearer?

Remember, it takes time to produce each unit. Apple is shipping as fast as they can.

Predicting demand isn't the problem, but if some of you had any clue whatsoever what it takes to ramp up production of a new product, you know why they are in limited supply to start with. And as far as jumping through hoops as you call it, well, if they dont make it as precise and fair as possible, then people whine and complain til the end of the earth. Its all about trying to be fair to people. No matter what they do, it still isn't good enough.

Oh, and as for the cube, i think that its only a stinker in your mind. It may not have sold well, overall, but the people who have them love them. And despite what you think, they dont have 'warehouses of them sitting around'.

> Er, yes - thanks for the simplistic Econ 101 talk. The real question is
> (nearly as rhetorical as the last), why are they so poor at predicting
> the winners? They're invariably bitten in the a** by their own
> success, and they do lose sales and reputation for it.

You do realize that all companies suffer from this, right? Your very question is flawed at its base:

If Apple were able to predict the winners always, why would they ever sell any other product? Nobody wants to sell a loser..

They thought the cube would be a success, it wasn't.

They thought the iPod mini would be a success, it is.

Still, it's better to ramp up production and air on the lower side than to end up with too many products. Overproduction hurts a company more than underproduction -- but I'm sure they've been working hard over the last 2 months to ramp up production on the iPod mini... it's just hard to do. It's easy to stand on the outside looking in.

I called the Oakbrook Apple Store and asked if they had any mini's in stock. They said they had "tons," and "tons of silver ones," so I hauled azz in my 86 Honda of love (hatchback), and picked up a silver one.

No hoops, no lists, no BS. Neat toy.

Steve