iPods vs Macs

Did anyone say the iPhone is cannibalizing iPod sales? Yes, a lot of people said it, and even I had to agree with that. Anyway, it seems that didn't stop Apple to increase the number of iPods manufactured, especially now that the next MacBooks are going to be delayed because Intel's upcoming Montevina Centrino 2 chip won't arrive just in time, but that's another story, and I will leave it aside for now. Now, let's see how do the iPod numbers look, shall we?

According to FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger, Apple has boosted its iPod build numbers by almost 15 percent for the June quarter, so the iPod growth quarter-over-quarter may go as high as 35 percent!

"We see greater Shuffle, Classic, and Nano builds slightly offset by fewer Touch builds, with greater Shuffle builds accounting for most of the increased iPod builds," said Berger.

As a personal thought - I don't think the iPod touch is worth its price, and with the arrival of the 3G iPhone, the high-end iPod should be compromised anyway. Why? First, if the 3G iPhone is not extremely expensive, people are going to buy it instead of the iPod touch, and even if the new iPhone will be beyond the buyers' reach, they will surely be able to get an "old" iPhone for a very good price.

At the same time, Mac builds refuse to go up. "For the second quarter, we see total PC build volumes declining about 15 percent sequentially due to Apple's [notebook] inventory build in 1Q," estimated FBR Capital Markets' analyst.

One last question - what do you think about the iPod touch? There's any sense in having it, as long as you have an iPhone, no matter if it's going to be the 3G model, or the old one?