By now Apple has sold more than 10 million iPod MP3 players, and the company's stock has surged 270 percent since the iPod was first introduced in October 2001. But these days analysts are wary of the player's future success.
An
AP article appearing at BusinessWeek online yesterday reports that unlike in the past, when Apple has always shipped more iPods to retailers than expected, Goldman Sachs analysts now predict that Apple would likely only meet expectations and iPod shipments to be flat this quarter. The AP article is also quoting an AppleInsider
report saying that shipments of most iPod models are "flat or declining" for the first time since the device was launched in 2001 and that, as a consequence Apple is overstocked on most of its MP3 players.
After these news Apple stock fell $1.80, or 4.5 percent to close at $38.24 last Friday.