Even credit-crunch era consumers will break out the plastic to buy an iPod in a new color.
USA today devoted an article on how shoppers aren’t color blind — especially when it comes to Apple mp3 players:
Nearly five years ago, Sally Trammer of Indianapolis, a senior systems analyst at Eli Lilly bought herself an iPod Mini specifically because it came in the color she craved: lime green.
Trammer was fully aware that this model stored far fewer songs than a full-size white or black iPod.
“I didn’t care, I just wanted to have that color,” she says. She recalls overpaying, too about $300. Then she purchased a fancy, lime-green leather case, to boot. “Regardless of what it cost, I knew I had to have it.”
Such consumer color devotion is a key element in iPod sales. Apple officials declined to comment, but retail expert Marshal Cohen of NPD says he’s spoken with plenty of adult iPod owners who bought new iPods specifically to get a new color. “This boggles the mind,” he says.
Color me a little astonished by the trend, too. A silver iPod nano is as far as I’ve strayed from classic white.
Fess up in the comments: have you bought a new iPod for the color, for yourself or for someone else?
Photo credit: AJ Mast
Via USA today
12 responses to “Make Mine Match: Shoppers Buy iPods for New Colors”
No. I’m still rocking an old 3g iPod (only came in white) and a 1g iPod nano (black). The only other iPod that I own is a 1g iPhone.
My dirty little secret has been exposed. My brain started to vibrate when I they came out with the 2nd gen nanos – I don’t remember anything till my bright blue nano arrived. I suffer from gear lust, but have never had a blackout like that before.
I bought the 8 GB Nano 3rd gen. because it is black, and the 16 GB iPhone because it is white. Hmm. Well, it seamed a good idea at the time.
No regrets :-)
I got a skin for mine — still rocking my old 3rd gen iPod with a pink floral skin. (The effect reminds me a little of the original iMac cases– except mine’s prettier!)
Just out of college & with my own job, I scrimped and saved up to buy the first Apple product I ever bought (my parents have been Apple people since the IIe and bought me my iMac for college). I couldn’t fathom ever needing as much room for music as a full-blown iPod, and anyway I didn’t have the money for it. So I bought a blue Mini, which I still have and still love. I have to admit that I really liked the older Nanos (the first vid-capable models) and plotted getting one in green. Not so much a fan of the newer Nanos. My next iPod (unless I get an iPhone) would be a touch, for the apps. Otherwise, I’d probably just get a 160 black Classic and call it a day. I’ve managed to create a significant number of playlists which are larger than the capacity of my Mini, which impresses me, so I probably need an upgrade soonish.
That was a long-winded way of saying: absolutely I buy stuff for the color! That iMac I mentioned above? I wanted bondi blue but my dad got blueberry. The first words out of my mouth were (not “Thank you”, oh no) “It’s the wrong color.” He took it back and my fingers did the walking to find the last bondi blue iMac sold in the greater Los Angeles area (okay, that might be an exaggeration; perhaps merely in the lesser Los Angeles area). And I’d do it again. I bought my MacBook for the black, and I know many many customers who forked up the extree $200 for the “cool” color.
for me this comes under the ‘YuCKI’ economic heading in credit crunch times.
You Can Keep It.
what they need to do is start concentrating on the one or two significant shortcomings they intentionally build in to their own devices for the purpose, we are given to understand, of maintaining control of the their product and the quality of the user experience. no cut-and-paste on the iPhone? no use of a WiFi 3G device as a tethered modem? no Flash?
come on Apple. some of your fans are grown-ups who would appreciate full functionality from a device that’s supposed to be the be-all-and-end-all of the mobile experience and well-capable of delivering the features in question.
(and i am an apple user for going on 7 years now, got a MacBook Pro, iPod and clip-on design iPod Shuffle and do have plenty good to say about them)