Posted on: Thursday, December 16, 2004
Apple may sell 4M iPods
By Josh Fineman
Bloomberg News
Amazon.com Inc. has sold out of Apple Computer Inc.'s 20-gigabyte iPod digital music player and Best Buy Co. is in short supply amid surging holiday demand.
Candice Towell • Associated Press Best Buy, the world's largest electronics retailer, won't get more 20-gigabyte iPods to stores before Christmas, spokesman Brian Lucas said. Sales of portable music players have led the increased demand at U.S. retailers for digital electronics including cameras, televisions, DVD players and notebook computers.
"We're making and shipping iPods as fast as we can," Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said.
Apple will probably sell 4 million iPods this quarter, Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich said last month, compared with 733,000 a year earlier.
Advertiser library photo Buckingham said he had to wait eight weeks before he received his wife's iPod mini in the spring. Competing players include Creative Technology Ltd.'s Zen line, which is also selling briskly said Julia Grice, director of research at Amajac Capital Management in Stamford, Conn. Amajac manages $170 million including Creative Technology shares.
Sharper Image Corp. has run out of the pink iPod minis in the past few days, Chief Executive Richard Thalheimer said.
"We're begging Apple for more inventory every day and we know they are trying their best to keep up with demand," Thalheimer said. "I suspect they made optimistic forecasts and they outsold those optimistic forecasts."
Sharper Image, based in San Francisco, began selling iPods in October and said the music players far outsell other MP3 music players at the retailers' 170 stores and through its catalog and Web site. "There's no comparison. It's so much cooler, hipper, works better, looks better. Their fashion sense has been terrific," Thalheimer said.
Amazon.com links customers to retailers including Circuit City Stores Inc. The Internet retailer has some of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s branded version of the 20-gigabyte iPod, Ingle said, and the iPod mini in gold.
"I would advise people to order quickly," Ingle said.
Amazon.com, the world's biggest Internet retailer, ran out of the $299 model, which holds 5,000 songs, as well as the $249 iPod mini in four of five colors, spokeswoman Molly Ingle said.
Donna Tumey yesterday stocked orders at the Amazon.com warehouse in Fernley, Nev. Apple's iPod digital music players have been hot sellers. Many orders may not be filled until after the holidays.
"I think it's a good thing that your product is in such demand," said John Buckingham, president of Al Frank Asset Management in Laguna Beach, Calif., which manages about $600 million, including 38,000 Apple shares. "Obviously it's even bigger than what they would have thought."
Apple Computer saleswoman April Ackerman showed an iPod at a store in Palo Alto, Calif., in April. Demand for the music player is outpacing supply.
