Regarding shuffle shortage...

Looks like it might not just be Apple's fault

From www.ipodlounge.com

"Toshiba can't keep up with iPod shuffle demand
Toshiba corporate vice president Masashi Muromachi said Monday that his company is having trouble producing enough flash memory chips for Apple's iPod. "When it comes to the supply-demand balance we are currently unable to satisfy all customer demands," Muromachi said, noting in particular the launch of the iPod shuffle. "Demand created by this new device is so vast that our current capacity can in no way meet [Apple's] needs," he said.

Muromachi said Toshiba plans to boost spending on semiconductors by 13 percent this year in an effort to expand output of flash chips. He also said the company would move forward the production schedule at a new flash memory plant owned jointly with SanDisk. "

well...apple could scrap toshiba and go for some other company...

There are several reasons they can't, and won't. I don't feel like getting into it, but it would almost certainly be a huge mistake if they did.

[quoteaf6a103d3a="ashnazg"]Looks like it might not just be Apple's fault

From www.ipodlounge.com

"Toshiba can't keep up with iPod shuffle demand
Toshiba corporate vice president Masashi Muromachi said Monday that his company is having trouble producing enough flash memory chips for Apple's iPod. "When it comes to the supply-demand balance we are currently unable to satisfy all customer demands," Muromachi said, noting in particular the launch of the iPod shuffle. "Demand created by this new device is so vast that our current capacity can in no way meet [Apple's] needs," he said.

Muromachi said Toshiba plans to boost spending on semiconductors by 13 percent this year in an effort to expand output of flash chips. He also said the company would move forward the production schedule at a new flash memory plant owned jointly with SanDisk. "[/quoteaf6a103d3a]

Do you think Gratis will offer us other iPod products if they can't supply the deamand on these bad boys?

JT

No but I think they might have a transfer of give you the money D

What will happen is Toshiba will take action to increase production capacity until they are up to speed. The problem is that it takes some time to significantly increase production capacity

Screw Toshiba...Go to panasonic.

Panasonic has been a trusted company for I think over 50 years.

They've been making Technics 1200 turntables for around 30 years now and they are still used in EVERY club you go to. Durability and stability wink

I would think they can use other memory chips, samsung and hynix are both decent in terms of gpu memory chips

possibly, however they may be in a contract with toshiba...

Like switching to another company would speed things up. Do some of you actually think that this "shortage" is anything more than a marketing scheme?

considering the evidence that there is an actual shortage of chips, which doesn't surprise me, frankly, considering the original ipod, when it was introduced, sold at a rate of about 2000 a day for about the first year and a half, i doubt it's just a marketing scheme

But you see...all they had to do is look at that history to know that the minute these things came out, they'd have sales going through the roof. Why didn't they have a significant amount of production complete before releasing it? I'm telling you....Apple knows what they are doing.

i'm tired of apple's chit ... but i still love my ipod

correct me if i'm mistaken, but doesnt the regular hard drive iPods use Toshiba drives as well?

its only toshiba that makes hard drives that small.

if apple ditched them and went with some other company to save the iPod shuffle, they just gave the rest of the iPod product line the kiss of death.

[quote607f47cc37="techdude05"]correct me if i'm mistaken, but doesnt the regular hard drive iPods use Toshiba drives as well?

its only toshiba that makes hard drives that small.

if apple ditched them and went with some other company to save the iPod shuffle, they just gave the rest of the iPod product line the kiss of death.[/quote607f47cc37]

http//www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=22-147-002&DEPA=1

No sorry...Hitachi makes the smallest wink

[quoted29fba7a45="techdude05"]correct me if i'm mistaken, but doesnt the regular hard drive iPods use Toshiba drives as well?

its only toshiba that makes hard drives that small.

if apple ditched them and went with some other company to save the iPod shuffle, they just gave the rest of the iPod product line the kiss of death.[/quoted29fba7a45]

I was under the impression that the "regular hard drive iPods" were running Seagate HD's? I could be wrong...

[quotea9ce839d7a="Lightsky"]Screw Toshiba...Go to panasonic.

Panasonic has been a trusted company for I think over 50 years.

[/quotea9ce839d7a]

Um, no keep Toshiba.

Toshiba has been a trusted company as long as Panasonic. Currently Panasonic has the some of the best plasma TV's but Toshiba is right there with them. In the 80's and 90's Panasonic was pretty much crap they were more in line with Emerson than Toshiba.

I might be biased but it's because I had my 27" Toshiba TV for 12 years before I finally had to get rid of it.

Does Panasonic even make any flash memory?

Pioneer 8)

Best company ever

[quote7000b36903="Lightsky"][quote7000b36903="techdude05"]correct me if i'm mistaken, but doesnt the regular hard drive iPods use Toshiba drives as well?

its only toshiba that makes hard drives that small.

if apple ditched them and went with some other company to save the iPod shuffle, they just gave the rest of the iPod product line the kiss of death.[/quote7000b36903]

http//www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=22-147-002&DEPA=1

No sorry...Hitachi makes the smallest wink[/quote7000b36903]

They shoulda put those badboys in an ipod and called it the new ipod minis. damn that is small lol

Um...the Mini DOES use the hitachi/IBM MicroDrive. Those things are way too small for a normal 3.5" laptop-size HDD, which is what the regular iPod uses. All the tiny 4 and 5 gigabyte drive-based MP3 players use that drive.

When the Creative Nomad MuVo2 first came out, Wal-Mart was selling them for $199 online and instore. People really quickly found out that you could VERY easily remove the microdrive inside for use in a CF Type II-capable digital camera (e.g. SLR cameras), and put a regular CF card inside the MuVo2 for use as an MP3 player. That was, however, when Hitachi was still charging $400 for a 4gb microdrive. Since that happened, Creative now mods the drives (last I heard they were soldering them to the logic board) to keep people from doing that, and Hitachi (obviously) lowered their prices to a much more sensible price range.

The Mini is only bigger than, say, the MuVo2 because of the display size and wiring, and quite possibly the battery.

[edit]oh, and @am_pcguy I totally agree. I only use Toshiba hard drives in my laptops, because IBM TravelStar makes complete shit and I have never had problems with Toshiba (not to mention they still carry a 3-year warranty). I wouldn't trust any other brand with data that important.[/edit]

but do they make a 6bg microdrive? is that what they're putting in the new minis?

http//www.pocketpctools.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid2=1579

Looks like WD has one now. Rumor is that Seagate is going to produce the 6GB microdrives for the next generation of iPod Minis.

I do need to correct my last post - the full-size iPods use 1.8" Toshiba drives; not normal 2.5" notebook computer drives.

But, yeah. Whoohoo.

I have one of those Hitachi Micro Drives (4GB). I bought a Muvo2 from Dell for $180 after a coupon and other discounts. I pulled the drive, stuck a 512MB card in the Muvo2 and sold it on ebay for $119 D

I'm using that drive in my Sony F828 camera and works great. I can record .mpgurl==http://=http:///url at 640x480 30fps and the files are huge so 4GB is perfect.

They changed the Drive in the Muvo2 though. It can't be used in a digital camera. A friend of mine bought one and it worked as USB drive but our cameras wouldn't pick it up as a drive.

What would be nice is for Apple to use a 6GB CF card for the mini. That way it would be Flash memory not a drive. I'm sure that would increase the life significantly. Then again they may want the drives to fail ever 3 years or so to sell more iPods...

Not only that, but huge CF cards are REALLY expensive right now. It's an entirely different technology than moving disk drives.

For instance http//www.mobileplanet.com/product.asp?pf_id=MP970857&dept_id=1445

An 8GB CF card was introduced early 2004, but the MSRP on it was over $4,000. It's going to be awhile before they can use flash-based media in large-capacity mp3 players...

[edit]
Well, zipzoomfly.com has the Sandisk Ultra II 8GB card, and it's been marked down to lionlyli $900. Regardless, the cost is astronomical for a product that currently only costs between $150 and $300.