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May 16 - May 23, 2004 |
iPod mini an unprecedented success
North American demands delay European launch of Apple's popular and colourful MP3 players
By Alessandro Cancian
Originally Published: 2004-04-04
Some people were disappointed, no doubt, but news of the three-month postponement of the world availability of the iPod mini, Apple's latest little jewel, brought joy to Wall Street, at least if stock market results are any indication.
It looks like nowadays it may be easier to find the Fountain of Youth than one of the coloured players, real status symbols for a new generation of digital users.
If Canadian users can still harbour a faint hope of grabbing one of these MP3 players, the same cannot be said for Europeans. Those who thought to hang an iPod mini from their belts in the new season, in fact, will have to think twice. Apple moved the European launch of its baby iPod, initially scheduled for April, by a few months.
The Cupertino company justified this delay with American sales "largely exceeding expectations, which completely absorbed the production planned for the spring."
Apple maintains that its production of iPod mini will manage to satisfy international demands only from the fourth quarter, which goes from July to September: in the worst case, this could mean that European consumers might be able to purchase an iPod mini by the beginning of the fall.
"The iPod mini is an incredible success in the United States, and we are certain that the same will happen all over the world, as soon as our production will catch up in July," said Tim Cook, Apple's Executive VP, Worldwide Sales and Operations. "The iPod mini builds upon the success of the iPod, already the world's most famous and most sold digital music player."
Apple explained that the weak link in its chain is not its production plant but Hitachi's insufficient supply of 1" hard disks. These drives, designed to replace flash memory sticks on small devices, have a storage capacity of 4 GB and extremely low energy consumption.
Those who had criticized the price of these small digital players will have to change their tune somewhat, judging from salespeople declaring the iPod mini an unprecedented success. The success of the iPod mini, as well as Apple's partnership with Hewlett-Packard to sell an HP-branded version of the iPod, should help fuel Apple's momentum in the portable music player market. Right now, the company is king of the hill in that market, analysts say.
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