Summary: four million to be sold this holiday season; adoption rate higher than for Sony’s Walkman.
From MacNN:
An article in the The Wall Street Journal today says that iPods are becoming scarce at retailers around the country. The report says that Amazon.com, Buy.com, and other online retailers are now out of stock and “Apple is contending with what appears to be an immense demand for the gadget,” and it suggests that Apple is dealing with manufacturing and distribution constraints due to the iPod’s ‘near-cult status.’ Consumers are buying iPods faster than they did the Sony Walkman by its sixth year, and analysts expect Apple to sell more than 4 million iPods this holiday season. ‘To try to meet the high demand, we’re making and shipping iPods as fast as we can,’ Apple said in a statement. ‘So, if one store has run out, you may find iPods in another authorized iPod reseller.’ iPod minis are selling for as much as $380 ($130 above retail) on eBay’s auction site.”