Its happening - the marketing BS and fad effect is fading - people are wising up and buying on important features instead. Apple cancelled their most popular product the people really wanted [iPod Mini] and it was a mistake. This is the real world and not the Internet. Haha...ohio said:Not until the product is essentially a commodity does that drastically occur. It could be a decade before that stage is reached. Lots of money to be made until then, and any smart company will divest from the market once margins get that low.
Additionally, consumer access to information/opinions puts much more pressure on companies to come up with quality products and features (not necessarily functionality) that consumers want. It's far more difficult to produce a successful but inferior product these days than it was in the 80s and 90s.
bizjournals.com
Analyst: Early iPod nano sales good, not great
Tuesday September 13, 12:35 pm ET
Sales of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod mini replacement, nano, were lower than many expected on the first weekend it was available, an analyst reported on Tuesday.
Shaw Wu, who follows Cupertino-based Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - News) for American Technology Research, said checks with industry and channel sources indicate that many Apple stores sold between 200 and 500 of their initial nano allocation of between 1,800 and 2,500.
Sales of the iPod mini, on the other hand, continue to be strong even though the discounting that was offered before last week's nano unveiling have been discontinued, Mr. Wu said.
"We believe iPod nano may cause sticker shock as consumers are not getting more storage for their dollar as they are accustomed to," Mr. Wu said in his report. "In contrast, iPod mini has superior storage capacity (4 gigabytes vs. 2 gigabytes at $199 and 6 gigabytes vs. 4 gigabytes at $249) and better battery life -- 18 hrs vs. 14 hours. We may be alone at this point, but we believe matching the super success of iPod mini may be a tough act for iPod nano to follow without some changes."
Mr. Wu said Apple may need to either increase the storage capacity to match at least iPod mini or cut the price by $50.
When iPod mini was launched in January 2004, it was almost universally panned due to its "small" storage capacity of 4 gigabytes and lack of value compared to regular iPods, Mr. Wu wrote, cautioning " iPod nano has only started shipping since Sept. 7, and thus it may be difficult to draw a trend with only six days of data."
Published September 13, 2005 by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal