iPod Sales Up 50 Percent

[HardOCP News]

Apple has reason to be happy this holiday season, sales of iPods are up 50 percent. Put this together with strong sales of its Intel-based Macs and Apple has millions of reason to be happy.

The device has been around for five years, but iPod sales are still going strong, Apple reported. Just over 21 million iPods were purchased during the quarter, compared to 14 million during the previous year's holiday season. Revenue from iPods increased just 18 percent, however, from $2.9 billion to $3.4 billion.

 

[thewooster]

Revenue was $7.1 billion, up about 25 percent from the previous year's first quarter of $5.7 billion. Earnings per share were $1.14, up sharply from the previous year's earnings per share of 65 cents, for Apple's first fiscal quarter ending on December 30.

Man, I'll take a piece of that.

 

[masteraleph]

While the ipods are really nice, note that that's a drastic drop compared to year over year increases for previous Q4s. 50% is awesome, but compared to the several hundred percent increases they had been seeing, it's not so great. Then again, it's been quite a while since they came out with a truly *new* ipod.

 

[zero_vertical]

sales are up because they break, and apple won't replace or repair them. they make you buy a new one. i've heard of 6 people since this summer that this happened to, and all apple said was "sorry, we can give you $20 towards a new one"

lol

what a racket that is. they tie you into their proprietary music software/files, then leave you stranded when the hardware kicks the bucket after 15 months.

zv

 

[Xerodeluxe]

sales are up because they break, and apple won't replace or repair them. they make you buy a new one. i've heard of 6 people since this summer that this happened to, and all apple said was "sorry, we can give you $20 towards a new one"

lol

what a racket that is. they tie you into their proprietary music software/files, then leave you stranded when the hardware kicks the bucket after 15 months.

zv

They come with a one year warranty on Ipods. Either Apple is not helping its consumers or people are abusing them out of warranty. My Ipod, however is still strong with normal abuse.

 

[Ockie]

sales are up because they break, and apple won't replace or repair them. they make you buy a new one. i've heard of 6 people since this summer that this happened to, and all apple said was "sorry, we can give you $20 towards a new one"

lol

what a racket that is. they tie you into their proprietary music software/files, then leave you stranded when the hardware kicks the bucket after 15 months.

zv

Thats why you get purchase protection from apple or from the store you buy it at?? I'm sorry, but any electronic device that you will be flinging around and carrying on you should be covered as it's never expected to last.

I've never seen anyone having problem having thier ipods replaced that breaks... the only ones are the abused ones.

 

[MrE]

Thats why you get purchase protection from apple or from the store you buy it at?? I'm sorry, but any electronic device that you will be flinging around and carrying on you should be covered as it's never expected to last.

I've never seen anyone having problem having thier ipods replaced that breaks... the only ones are the abused ones.

+1. I have friends that have Cell phones that break too. Guess that means all cell phone companies are in a racket? No, its simply the nature of portable electronics. They tend to be a bit more abused due to its inherent function. Hell my older Gen4 is still going on strong almost 3 years later.

-E

 

[zero_vertical]

it's a racket when they all seem to be breaking between the 13th and 15th month.

i highly doubt my 76yr old mother in law is dealing out a ton of abuse, and my 16yr old step sister, despite all the stereotype that might be bouncing around in your heads, takes tremendous care of her ipod.

same with my nephew.

an ipod get's NO where near the abuse a cell phone does, and as a particularly abusive cell phone user, i don't ever have probelms, including my scarred, bruised and beaten blackberry of 25 months. trust me, none of these people are abusing their toys like i abuse my BB.

zv

 

[Daneth]

Yeah, I agree about the racket.

My 4th gen ipod lasted about 24 months, but I took meticulous care of it. I would never put it in the same pocket as my keys, or cell phone for example, to avoid it bumping into anything hard while I walked, and I also made sure not to charge it up on a regular basis to avoid the woes of its battery dying (the most common flaw with ipods). In the end, the buttons stopped working.

Really makes you wonder, when the iphone comes out, whether it will last even until the two year cell phone contract runs out.

 

[Ockie]

it's a racket when they all seem to be breaking between the 13th and 15th month.

i highly doubt my 76yr old mother in law is dealing out a ton of abuse, and my 16yr old step sister, despite all the stereotype that might be bouncing around in your heads, takes tremendous care of her ipod.

same with my nephew.

an ipod get's NO where near the abuse a cell phone does, and as a particularly abusive cell phone user, i don't ever have probelms, including my scarred, bruised and beaten blackberry of 25 months. trust me, none of these people are abusing their toys like i abuse my BB.

zv

So you come to the conclusion that everyone and every ipod is having your problem because of your limited scope of experience?

Who said anything about beating it as abuse, dropping is also abuse... your 76 year old granny might not fling it around, but who's to say she doesn't drop it? Spill on it? etc?


My Ipod is working just fine and so are others.

 

[Ockie]

Yeah, I agree about the racket.

My 4th gen ipod lasted about 24 months, but I took meticulous care of it. I would never put it in the same pocket as my keys, or cell phone for example, to avoid it bumping into anything hard while I walked, and I also made sure not to charge it up on a regular basis to avoid the woes of its battery dying (the most common flaw with ipods). In the end, the buttons stopped working.

Really makes you wonder, when the iphone comes out, whether it will last even until the two year cell phone contract runs out.

You know things do occasionally break? Especially electrical components... so becuase of your scope, you classify the entire ipod deal a racket.... nice.

 

[stonedwaldo420]

In my opinion, iPods have slightly lower reliability than Cell phones (except LG… they have made some terrible phones). This in itself does not constitute a racket. The racket comes from the fact that Apple will not allow iTunes playback on any other player.. They don’t have to do anything extra…. Just don’t sue Microsoft if they enable iTunes on the Zune.

Anyway, I am disappointed to hear that Apple is doing well. I guess this means that my voodoo iMac isn’t working as intended....

I am just waiting for the day when all of the free cell phones come with 30GB standard, and the government finally forces apple to open up iTunes… Then lets see how well they are doing!!! AHAHAHAHAHAH

 

[MrE]

of

In my opinion, iPods have slightly lower reliability than Cell phones (except LG… they have made some terrible phones). This in itself does not constitute a racket. The racket comes from the fact that Apple will not allow iTunes playback on any other player.. They don’t have to do anything extra…. Just don’t sue Microsoft if they enable iTunes on the Zune.

Anyway, I am disappointed to hear that Apple is doing well. I guess this means that my voodoo iMac isn’t working as intended....

I am just waiting for the day when all of the free cell phones come with 30GB standard, and the government finally forces apple to open up iTunes… Then lets see how well they are doing!!! AHAHAHAHAHAH

So... the truth here is not that iPods are bad in your opinion, but that you hate Apple cause iTunes? Wow, man grow up. Fan boy rant aside, I back up Ockie on his assessment.

-E

 

[HardOCP News]

One trick Apple DOES use that leads to more sales (not covered by warranty) is the age old:

Introducing the iPod nano!

Buy one.


3 weeks later....


Introducing the VIDEO iPod.


damn them, buy that one, give the nano to the daughter.


two iPods purchased when I normally would have only purchased the one. The year before, same thing, different iPods.

 

[Asian Dub Foundation]

im not surprised

 

[stonedwaldo420]

of

So... the truth here is not that iPods are bad in your opinion, but that you hate Apple cause iTunes? Wow, man grow up. Fan boy rant aside, I back up Ockie on his assessment.

-E

Yes, iTunes is the main reason I hate Apple. They have a long history of shady and dishonest business practices, but iTunes is the most recent and severe offense.

Not a good reason? What apple is doing with iTunes is a GREAT reason to hate them. Furthermore, it is even a good enough reason for the federal government to sue them for anti-competitive practices.
iPods are decant MP3 players right now (there are some players with more features that cost quite a bit less, but some might say they are not “cool and stylish enough”…. Those are probably the same people that pay $500 for a pair of Prada shoes because they are more “cool and stylish” than the $50 pair.)

Anyway, Apple’s anti-consumer practices are not causing too many problems right now because it isn’t too painful being restricted to the iPod to play back your music. But what about five years from now? What if the iPod sucks? Or what if they start charging $500 for it? You will have no choice but to keep buying iPods or you will loose the massive music collection you amassed over the previous decade. This is the whole reason we have laws against anti-competitive practices and monopolistic tactics. And NO, you cannot convert it into unprotected MP3 files. Sure it is possible, but it is a violation of the DMCR and therefore cannot be used by Apple as a defense.

Finally, I would also like to mention that I have hated apple for about 15 years now. I did not just hop on the bandwagon of people hating iTunes. The root of my hatred stems from my school district wasting huge sums of money on apple hardware when I was in grade school. Thanks to their investment, everyone in my graduating class was an expert at making photo albums and playing with clip art, but they had NO idea how to use Access and I am sure their future employers are going to be disappointed that they have no idea how to use a Windows machine. While this wasn’t directly Apple’s fault (they do have shady sales people who LIE to customers and try to scare them away from purchasing a more economical PC), it can be blamed on a group of Mac heads. Without apple, there would be no fanatical Mac heads to waste my tax dollars!
Since that time, Apple has spewed a steady stream of BS that keeps my flame of hatred burning strong!