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iPods Could Appear in Wal-Mart in April

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

February 1, 2005, 10:12 AM

In what could signal trouble for the Windows Media based digital music industry, reports indicate that retail giant Wal-Mart is set to receive shipments of the iPod shuffle in April of this year. According to sources, the flash based-music player may be made available in all of the chain's 5,000 stores.

Wal-Mart will feature the iPod shuffle in its March flyer and announce availability, says Mac enthusiast site AppleInsider, which first reported the news.

The discount chain is already selling iPod minis in a "limited number of stores," according to a Wal-Mart spokesperson, however the company declined to say how many of the 5,000 stores are carrying the device. Walmart.com sells a variety of iPod accessories and the HP version of the iPod.

A product feature normally requires 50 units for each store, which in this case could be split between the two models, with more ordered for higher traffic stores. This could mean the initial iPod shuffle order would be some 250,000 units.

According to AppleInsider's research, the April date was agreed upon after Apple informed Wal-Mart that it could not guarantee order fulfillment at a later date. Wal-Mart originally planned to run the promotion later in the year.

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By notdarkyet

posted Feb 1, 2005 - 10:46 AM

why does this signal trouble? isn't this good? won't they sell a lot of ipod shuffles at Wal-Mart?

-justin

Score: 0

By BklynKid

posted Feb 1, 2005 - 10:48 AM

It signals trouble for all windows-based media players coming out.

Score: 0

By eoswald

edited Feb 1, 2005 - 11:47 AM

Well, wider market distribution for iPods could not be seen as a positive in any way for the windows-based products. One thing that WMA players had going for them was just about complete market saturation. You didn't have to go to an microsoft store or a certain retailer to pickup a player that does WMA. Everybody has them.

With Apple, you did. But if this is true, Apple would be in a store were probably half the country shops... and is synonomous with "value" (whether some of us agree or disagree). People go to Wal-Mart to get good deals - and if the iPod Shuffle is there.. people will likely associate it with that label, to Apple's benefit.

I don't doubt that Wal-Mart will likely sell it a few bucks cheaper than everybody else.. probably some wacky price like $96.81 or something... but heck, Apple has to be tickled pink about this deal.

I think we could see Apple go from zero to hero in the Flash-based market if it continues to play hardball like this.

But if this does happen.. what does this mean for portable WMA? Discuss. :)

Score: 0

By spiffyjeff

posted Feb 1, 2005 - 4:33 PM

Portable WMA, thats an oxy moron. In computer world, portable means: Relating to or being software that can run on two or more kinds of computers or with two or more kinds of operating systems. OK, so WMA might be portable between windows and apple, both of which you must pay for. If you want true portability, look up the Ogg Vorbis music file, made by XIPH: http://www.xiph.org/about.html

Score: 0

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