Europe and Asia to wait for miniPod

[diablojota]

I am too lazy too look for the story again, but I think it was on news.com.com or Rhe Register.
Basically due to the demand in the US, they have delayed shipments to Europe and Asia by an additional 3 months so they can fulfill the demand in the US.
Bad news for us living abroad.

[Ripcord]

I suppose in the scheme of things that's a good problem to have - "People are buying too many!!", though it stinks for folks not in the US.

However, I'd be surprised if there aren't at least a few US vendors willing to ship overseas, and especially with the US exchange rate right now the price may not be bad at all =)

A link to one of the stories is here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/36540.html

[Ripcord]

European and Asian music fans hoping to get their hands on Apple's iPod Mini sooner rather than later are going to be disappointed. The Mac maker today admitted that it has delayed the portable music player's debut until July - three months after the original April ship-date.

US customers have been so keen to get their hands on the 102g, 9 x 5 x 1.3cm player that Apple has already reached its end-of-June sales target. It hopes to ramp up its manufacturing in the July quarter, the company said, enabling it to begin selling the product overseas.

[Satcomer]

I feel really bad that Apple again has under produced a product. It's good that Apple has already reach June sales figures but this is becoming typical of Apple lately.

I know a lot of people here will now bash me because I believe Apple is seriously hurting themselves in the last 2 years. They hurt themselves because of lost sales because they don't produce enough of ANY given product they sell. To me it looks like Apple is trying a "Just in Time" inventory plan, but it is not working! For posters on this board (as well as others) the showing of new goods, then delaying shipping, is becoming an old tiresome game. Even if Apple announced new G5's tomorrow, consumers would have to wait another two months just to buy one (then Mac users outside the US will have to wait 4-6 months). In my book, that is seriously hurting possible revenue.

[Giaguara]

Hey - anyone in UK or Ireland or other Europe wants iPod minis in June? *cough* I might bring a few on demand... *cough* .. Apple was supposed to start selling then in UK in April. Guess not then..

[Ripcord]

I don't disagree at all, a LOT of people were upset and in some cases treated fairly badly during the G5 supply problems recently, as well as PowerBook problems not so long ago, etc. I'm wondering, though, how much of it was under Apple's control, and how much was due to vendor problems/delays/shortcomings (think, how fast could IBM supply PPC 970? How fast can the new, smaller, HDs for the iPod mini be produced/aquired by Apple?)

[soulseek]

its unacceptable!!! july ???
i really want an ipod mini... so im either gonna buy one through a friend at the states (that is IF he finds one) ..... or apple have probably lost 1 ipod mini customer... SHAME on u apple !!! :P

[MacMuppet]

I don't believe a word of it. They just don't like the exchange rate. I can almost imagine the guy at the brainstorming meeting; "so we'll make a smaller iPod, our profit margin won't be much but hey its ok - we can screw the europeans over again! I mean, whats the worst that could happen, its not like we're going to elect some good ol' boy who'll drive the economy into the ground and make the dollar worth less than a watermelon seed, right?" Wrong, Bob, wrong.
I'm not waiting anymore, I'll get something else.