Personal Dork Assistant

Moronicity (iPod Mini Bureau)

Let's not even count the hordes of nay-saying nabobs that came out of the woodwork when the Mini was announced. So what's the first thing you do when you debox your $250 (before taxes) toy? Rip it apart, of course!

I do have lots of close up pictures and can take more as the Pod mini looks like it's not going back together. I am an industrial designer who is use to professionally disassembling things like this and I have never been unable to get something back together. I screwed up on the iPod mini though; big time... twice! It's really tightly packaged and very very delicate.

Congratulations, you have a 250-dollar... something not useful. It doesn't even make a good paperweight or doorstop because it's so damn tiny and light.

The Motley Fool clown didn't want to believe the press release touting 100,000 pre-orders. So he went to the Apple Store, which had sold out of all the colors except silver, only because it's the color they stocked the most. He saw six Minis sold in the fifteen minutes he was in the store. So he had both hard numbers and anecdotal evidence of iPod Minis flying out the door, but that's not good enough for him.

Interestingly, Fool.com discussion board polling provided a stark contrast to my in-store experience. As of this writing, only one of 96 respondents, a Mac user, reported buying a Mini this weekend. How could that be?

Clearly, it's too early to tell if the Mini's premiere was a flop. And we won't know for sure unless Apple publishes numbers. But between my in-store experience and the unscientific poll, it appears the hype may have been just that.

Somehow he comes up with the conclusion that the Mini intro was a flop, based purely on a tiny biased sample of a poll on an Internet message board. I don't even know how his in-store experience supports his conclusion when said experience showed the store almost sold out of iPod Minis, at a rate of 24 an hour. What a maroon.

Looks like I'll be back in town in time for the opening of the flagship San Francisco Apple Store. Do I want to stand in a long line for a free T-shirt that'll be too big for me anyway? Hopefully they'll have discounts or something.

Posted by mikewang on 11:48 AM