Not really hoarding if you're selling them all.

Diverted selling maybe. Or constrained supply to outside dealers.

I know, picky picky. But our words are our tools. Let's use them right.

to maybe entice them into buying an iMac or Mac mini with that iPod. Maybe Steve "crazy like a fox" Jobs has constrained supply JUST A BIT to try to increase foot traffic in his own stores. After all, we are talking about a much larger pie than we usually do- the total supply of iPods is much larger than it used to be- so all these stores are "selling out" of a much larger number of iPods than in the past. Certainly, folks who are willing to get in line at 5AM to buy a Bratz doll, will be willing to drive across town to the Apple store, where they know they can find what they want.

I'll bet the foot traffic in the Apple stores is INSANE these days.

the real miracle is that apple set aside any i-pods at all to sell outside of the apple store. Steve could have left them selling clunky hard to use bill gates inspired windows media powered junk. Instead he generously cut them out some inventory that apparently sells itself (undocumented feature) and the babies are crying that they did not get as much as they wanted on their plates.
i remind you all what it was like to walk into one of these stores 3 years ago where there was one sad banged up mac with no ball in the mouse and 5 salesmen attacking you to buy the beige box because its "better" (it came with a big commission and extra sales bonus (undocumented feature) to push it out the door) the reason we have apple stores today is because the Mac's could not get a fair shake in these fine retail establishments in the first place! (ahhh revenge is a dish best served COLD!)

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otaojones wrote:
the real miracle is that apple set aside any i-pods at all to sell outside of the apple store. Steve could have left them selling clunky hard to use bill gates inspired windows media powered junk. Instead he generously cut them out some inventory that apparently sells itself (undocumented feature) and the babies are crying that they did not get as much as they wanted on their plates.
i remind you all what it was like to walk into one of these stores 3 years ago where there was one sad banged up mac with no ball in the mouse and 5 salesmen attacking you to buy the beige box because its "better" (it came with a big commission and extra sales bonus (undocumented feature) to push it out the door) the reason we have apple stores today is because the Mac's could not get a fair shake in these fine retail establishments in the first place! (ahhh revenge is a dish best served COLD!)

Well, your snide comment might apply to stores like Radio Shack, but not to independent Apple dealers. My local Mac dealer uses the iPod just as you describe for Apple stores. That deale is the one being hurt by the likes of Radio Shack, Circuit City, etc.

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gslusher wrote:

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otaojones wrote:
the real miracle is that apple set aside any i-pods at all to sell outside of the apple store. Steve could have left them selling clunky hard to use bill gates inspired windows media powered junk. Instead he generously cut them out some inventory that apparently sells itself (undocumented feature) and the babies are crying that they did not get as much as they wanted on their plates.
i remind you all what it was like to walk into one of these stores 3 years ago where there was one sad banged up mac with no ball in the mouse and 5 salesmen attacking you to buy the beige box because its "better" (it came with a big commission and extra sales bonus (undocumented feature) to push it out the door) the reason we have apple stores today is because the Mac's could not get a fair shake in these fine retail establishments in the first place! (ahhh revenge is a dish best served COLD!)

Well, your snide comment might apply to stores like Radio Shack, but not to independent Apple dealers. My local Mac dealer uses the iPod just as you describe for Apple stores. That deale is the one being hurt by the likes of Radio Shack, Circuit City, etc.

This isn't snide, it's accurate. Chains like RadioShack, BestBuy, Circuit City have THOUSANDS of locations a piece. For years Mac users couldn't get half-way decent service at any of these locations. That has now since changed (to a degree) since the ascension of the iPod. Distribution of product is governed by two things: First, by the quantity ordered by the retailer and second by the number of units sold and likely to be sold by that particular vendor. If a store (any store ) orders X amount of iPods, Apple will receive that order and make a determination of what percentage of that order will be filled based upon that vendors track record of sales (i.e. how many units they have moved in the past) and potential sales of that order (how many of the units in order X is the vendor likely to sell based on what is known). Then orders are shipped. Many vendors only get a partial fulfillment because Apple does not want a vendor to sit on product that goes unsold and then gets sent back to Apple for restock. Sad but true fact is, big box sotres see more people daily than the mom and pop stores. It might suck, but it makes good business sense to give them the lion's share of product that is allocated to third-party vendors.