Sales of Apple’s new iPod nano were lower than expected on the first weekend it was available, a Wall Street analyst said Tuesday. American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu reported that a number of Apple retail stores only sold between 200 and 500 of their initial nano allocation of between 1,800 and 2,500 units.
“We believe iPod nano may cause sticker shock as consumers are not getting more storage for their dollar as they are accustomed to,” Wu said in a research 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.”
Wu said Apple may need to increase the storage capacity of the nano or cut its price by $50. The analyst cautioned, however, that the iPod nano “has only started shipping since Sept.
