Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

iPod Mini Worldwide Rollout Delayed

Posted by timothy on from the sound-the-tiny-klaxon-immediately dept.

falcon5768 writes "Apparently those 4-gig, $249 little buggers are selling faster than anyone expected.... So fast that the original April rollout worldwide has been delayed till July to keep up with the demand in the states and to get enough in production to meet worldwide sales. Given that there where 100,000 pre-orders alone, does this mean that yet again Apple hit on a niche that no one else (including me) thought would sell. I have been hearing a lot of rumors that the biggest buyer of the iPod mini has in fact been those female tech geeks out there. So much for the idea a $249 4-gig iPod was a mistake." Rob Glaser of RealNetworks, though, claims that not opening the iPod (big or small) to other formats is a real mistake; he wants to see iPod support other proprietary formats (like, say, Real's).

5 of 614 comments (clear)

  1. It's hard to say whether "it's a mistake". by James+A.+M.+Joyce · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The fact of the matter is that Joe Sixpack will not give a crap what format his music is in, and will mock anybody who tries to explain why he should. As long as it works, that's it. iPods will continue to sell regardless of format because unlike we nerds, normal people only store music on their iPods and listen to it from there. They don't swap their shit around as we would like to. So the iPod Minis will continue to be a raging success.

  2. Apple sold two yesterday by valkraider · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To my family... They came out to visit, they had never seen an iPod before, and they have almost zero Apple products in the city where they are from (only 1 CompUSA is the only place that sells Apple products). They all use PCs. I took them to the Apple store, and they walked out with two iPod Minis. They would buy Apple computers if Apple would get some Retail presence in New Mexico - so that they could have a place to buy software and peripherals and such....

  3. Re:Why women would adopt it first... by Talez · · Score: 4, Interesting

    i just dont think people get an iPod because they played with the alternatives and it worked the best.

    What crack are you smoking and where can I get me some?

    I got an iPod because scrolling through lists on dpads sucks ass. As soon as I walked into that apple store and touched that wheel I knew that navigating through my MP3 collection wouldn't suck. And then I paid for a 20GB iPod in cash, in full.

  4. Gotta throw in my $.02 by filmsmith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was showing my iPod off to a girl a couple of months ago, touting the features and telling her about the smaller pink ones that were coming out soon.

    She oohed and aahed that thing for quite a while (playing with it the whole time) and then asked one of the silliest questions I'd ever heard.

    "Is it easy to use?"

    My only response... "You tell me. You're using it right now."

    She's since bought her own pink iPod Mini.

    fs

  5. Re:Why women would adopt it first... by glyneth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My sister bought one because the 128mb or 256mb MP3 player she had didn't hold enough songs for her workout.

    She'd considered buying the larger ones and dealing with the weight, but when they announced the mini, she saved her cash and ordered it for her birthday.

    For her, it was the weight, not the cost. It was equivalent to her purchase of the smaller MP3 player, which is the point most people are missing.

    Oh, and she bought the silver, not the colors. Though she wishes now she'd kinda bought one of the colored ones.