jeffy124's Journal: Who's Discounting iPods?

I was hoping to get an Apple iPod for Christmas. Alas, it's too expensive and out of the budget. So I'm forced into purchasing it for myself. Hoping to cash in on a holiday season bargain, I've been keeping my eye on the sales circulars that come in the newspaper. I've seen plenty of discounts for MP3 players of all kinds (Rio's, Dell's new HD-based player, etc), and the iPod has also shown up. Christmas does not yet seem very merry to me. They always at the regular $299/399/499 price, never at a discount of any sort. You read that right, it's "for sale" at the *regular* price. Stores guilty of this include Best Buy, Cicuit City, Target, and CompUSA. The other day came in the mail a 10% off coupon for various items at Best Buy, including "MP3 Players" as indicated on the front of slip. Hoping this was how I was gonna get that discount, I set aside time this weekend to drive to Deleware in order to skip out on my local state sales tax too. I turned the coupon over, and in the legal disclaimer was the phrase "Exludes Apple iPod Players." Needless to say, a Merry Christmas is still aways off. Why do stores do this? How often? And does anyone know why Apple has been singled out while their competition has gotten their products discounted? Anyone know who *is* granting discounts on iPods this holiday season?

The Bear of Bad News

[DaytonCIM]

Apple doesn't normally support "sales." They don't share ad dollars, etc... Not to mention that the iPod is still VERY hot and just about everyone wants one.

And don't forget iTunes. Very popular and works very well with the iPod. Just another reason that the iPod is hot and probably will not fall below MSRP any time soon.

Sorry.

With that said, try www.shopper.com. Good site for cheap tech stuff.

Re:The Bear of Bad News

[jeffy124]

That's exactly why I want it. It's a very good product, especially when hooked into the iTMS.

One suspicion I have is that Apple's own success with the iPod is driving something like this, and that the retailer knows people will pay full price.

Archos

[baldass_newbie]

I can only tell you after a year of service, I'm still happy with my Archos Jukebox.
But I can understand the desire to go with an established name.

Re:Archos

[jeffy124]

never heard of it. google turned up amazon's pages for it, and I now remember seeing them in stores. I'm not really too crazy over something that big and bulky. my cellphone on my hip already gets in the way enough as it is.

Re:Archos

[baldass_newbie]

It looks bigger than it is.
By that, I mean with those padded corners you get the impression that it's massive, but I doubt it's a 1/2" bigger in any dimension.
In fact a quick check of the tech specs bears that out.
BTW, it looks like Archose is pushing the Gmini 120 [archos.com]. It can handle WMA as well as MP3. And it's 20 Gig for $150 less.
It's your money. ;-)