Music denied -- shoppers overwhelm iTunes

Swarms of online shoppers armed with new iPods and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed Apple's iTunes music store over the holiday, prompting error messages and slowdowns of 20 minutes or more for downloads of a single song.

Frazzled users began posting urgent help messages Monday and Tuesday on Apple's technical forum for iTunes, complaining they were either not allowed into the store or were told the system couldn't process their request to download songs and videos.

It was not immediately clear how many people were affected by the slowdowns, and Apple Computer Inc. would not immediately comment Wednesday on what caused the slowdown and whether it had been fixed.

Analysts said the problems likely were the result of too many people with holiday iPods and iTunes gift cards trying to access the site at once.

Traffic indeed was heavy over the holiday, with more than four times as many people visiting the iTunes Web site on Christmas than at the same time last year, online market researcher Hitwise said Wednesday.

Some financial analysts said the interruption could be viewed as a sign that sales dramatically exceeded the Cupertino-based company's own forecasts.

"It's actually created more positive buzz among analysts -- traffic was so great it blew up the site," said Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray. "If anything it could be a positive -- demand was better than they were expecting."

Apple commands about 75 percent of the market for downloaded music, but could lose as much as 5 percent of that market share in 2007 because of increased competition from rival services, according to Piper Jaffray.

Dan Frakes, a senior editor at Macworld magazine and playlistmag.com, a Web site focused on digital music, said he and some colleagues were unable to access the iTunes store or received error messages when they tried to download songs early this week.

However, others breezed through the process hassle-free, and Frakes successfully downloaded songs again on Wednesday. He said the problem likely was not as widespread as the frustrated discussion group chatter might indicate.

"The store itself was working, there was just too much traffic," he said. "It's a good bet that most people were able to get through."
Analysts said they didn't anticipate a rash of iPod returns because of the delays.

"What you're seeing is the tremendous success of the iPod," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director with JupiterResearch. "No doubt it was a very, very popular gift, and no matter how well you plan on the server side of the equation, there are always times when you get caught short."

:source: Source: CNN
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:lol: And they lose money...:bleh:

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/6199/appleri4.jpg

Hitwise announced today that the market share of visits to the iTunes website (www.apple.com/itunes) was up 413 percent on Christmas Day 2006 (December 25, 2006) versus Christmas Day 2005 as new iPod owners flocked to the web to download iTunes. In addition, the market share of visits to the Apple Store (store.apple.com) showed an increase of 110 percent when comparing Christmas Day 2006 to 2005. The Apple Store was the fourth most visited website in the Hitwise Retail Index on Christmas Day 2006.

The market share of visits to Zune.net, the site for downloading the music software for Microsoft's MP3 player showed an increase of 1,030 percent on December 25, 2006 versus the previous Monday (December 18, 2006). However, this strong initial performance was overshadowed by the iPod, as the market share of visits to the iTunes website increased by 1,222 percent in the same period, and outnumbered visits to Zune.net by 30 to 1.

"For the third holiday season in a row, the iPod has been the must-have Christmas gift," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. "Competitive offerings have not yet succeeded in capturing the attention of music listeners, and the surge in visits to the Apple Store shows that iPod owners are also engaged in filling and accessorizing their new devices."

The average daily increase in visits to the Hitwise Retail Index for the 2006 online holiday shopping season (Thanksgiving Day through the Thursday before Christmas) versus the same period in 2005 was 5.9 percent. The days with the largest individual increases over the same day in 2005 were Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving Day. Visits to the Retail 100 Index were up 13.2 percent on Monday, November 27, 2006 versus Monday, November 28, 2005 and up 11.8 percent on Thursday, November 23, 2006 versus Thursday November 24, 2005.

Online Holiday Shopping Update:

Visits Increased 6.2 Percent Last Week to Hitwise Retail 100 Index

-- This week, visits to the websites within the Hitwise US Retail 100 Index were up 6.2 percent for the week ending December 23, 2006 versus the same week last year (December 24, 2005).

-- Amazon.com remained the most visited website within the Index last week, receiving 13.18 percent of visits among the Retail 100 Index. Walmart received the second-most visits with 9.13 percent.

-- CircuitCity.com and BestBuy.com received the biggest increases in visits from week to week with respective increases of 20.7 percent and 17.1 percent. Hallmark.com was the fastest moving website within the Index jumping 14 spots from 31 to 17, an increase in visits of 97 percent for the week ending December 23, 2006.

-- Nintendo DS was the top product search term sending visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites for last week. The product term 'ipod' moved back into the second spot followed by 'nintendo wii' and 'wii' among the most popular product searches for the one-week ending December 23, 2006.

:source: Source: http://www.playfuls.com/news_05646__...stmas_Day.html

I admit, I downloaded itunes on christmas eve for my new ipod. I uninstalled quicktime after and reinstalled quicktime alternative. :)

Merged threads, since its basically the samething.