By John G. Spooner, 26 March 2004 09:55
NEWS Demand for the MP3 player in the US has been so high that there aren't enough hard drives to keep up and Apple says it has been forced to delay launches outside the US
Apple has pushed back the international debut of its iPod Mini from April to July, citing stronger than expected demand in the US and a limited supply of hard drives.
The iPod Mini, a 3.6-ounce portable music player, is based around a tiny 4GB hard drive. The diminutive music machine, which costs $249, began shipping in February in the US.
Since that date, Apple has received more orders than it had planned for, said Greg Joswiak, vice president of hardware product marketing at Apple. The number of orders - which included more than 100,000 pre-orders, according to Apple - was high enough to outstrip the availability of the 4GB drive from its manufacturer.
Apple says it was forced to concentrate on filling orders from the US market and to wait for greater availability of the drive in order to enter the international space, he said.
"We expected it to be a hit, but [demand] is turning out to be stronger than expected," Joswiak said. "US demand is going to consume all the supply we had planned through June."
The 4GB hard drive at the centre of the iPod mini came out in January, around the same time Apple announced the device. Its manufacturer, reported to be Hitachi, is still ramping up its manufacturing, so the supply of the drives has been limited, Joswiak explained.
Right now, "The [iPod Mini] demand is consuming just about all the 4GB 1-inch drives being made, he said.
Once the manufacturer increases the numbers of drives it produces, Apple will be able to expand the sales of the iPod Mini. Apple plans to begin that process in July. The company has yet to announce which countries the player will be offered in.
The iPod Mini's 4GB capacity allows it to store up to 1,000 songs, Apple said. It also comes in five colours, including silver, gold, pink, blue and green, and works with Apple's iTunes online music store.
John G. Spooner writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There are 11 comments. Join the discussion
1. Dan R. prew
In you're news article "US eating up to much apple, in the last paragraph you spelled colors wrong .just thought I would let you know that sombody did'nt do there job.
(Ed note. I think you'll find we did spell 'colours' correctly - with a 'u'. If you want to point the finger anywhere, you will in fact find Americans spell this English word 'wrongly' without the 'u'.)
2. richard
people in glass houses - how polite of the editor not to point out the writer's incorrect positioning of the apostrophe the insertion of there when their was the required spelling and general abuse of grammar
3. anonymous
In relation to Dan R. prew's comments, before you accuse others of making mistakes, I suggest you look at your own work first - "there job" should in fact have been spelt "their job" and "did'nt" should be replaced with "didn't". Typical of modern society to find fault with others...
4. anonymous
If Apple are using all the 4G hardrives being made...how come other manufacturers of such devices seem to have plentiful product which is selling extremely well?
5. anonymous
Why not buy an mp3 player from a manufacturer that values UK customers just as highly as its US ones?
Guess that rules out Apple :-)
6. Scott
Do you think many people are going to (and maybe are, which might explain the shortage!?) be stripping out the 4GB Compact Flash drive for use in digital camera's etc? I for one plan to buy two, because there is such a saving to be had on the flash card for use in my digital camera and that it's a relatively cheap player with plenty of disk space!
7. anonymous
Is this a spot the mistaicks artikle? The first line should be "your news" rather than you`re news. Your-belonging to you, You`re- You are.
This is on top of the "do`nt" and the "there/their errors".
None of the other comments found all the errors. Do I win a prize?
(Ed note. As far as we know you don't win anything. You are correcting the spelling in another reader's comment and while they may appreciate your corrections we're sure they won't be interested in awarding you a prize)
8. Rory Choudhuri
Re: Anonymous from Bristol
The main reason you don't win a prize is because you spelt mistakes incorrectly.
;-)
9. AVRILE BRISCO
Hi, Is there anywhere in the UK that has some stock of the Mini IPOD or have none winged their way across to UK yet. Realise the launch dates have changed but wondered if any had shipped prior to the new launch.
(Ed note. There's the silicon.com office, but we'll not be selling them anytime soon - we're having too much fun using them ourselves.)
10. The Monk
Hat's off to Apple's Marketing team ... Create a product that's essentially the same as it predecessor just smaller - add colour (that's spelt the English way).. and create a media frenzy amongst trend junkies and shoreditch wannabes by delaying shipments and increasing demand and media hype.
The question remains will Apple ever make any money from Digital Music or will someone once again come and eat their wonderfully prepared lunch ?
11. Mike Reynaud
I claim the prize! The definitive list of mistakes in John G Spooner's article is:
1: Should be "your" not "you're".
2: Should be "too much Apple". not "to much Apple".
3: Should be "somebody" not "sombody".
4: Should be "didn't" not "did'nt".
5: Should be "their" not "there". This is an impressive list of errors in a mere 31 words (and again, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt about all the punctuation errors), especially when you consider that the whole point of his initial posting was wrong anyway. And Rory Choudhuri, I assume you're just being unfunny...