Apple's iPod nano a holiday hit, shares rise

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Computer Inc.'s sleek iPod nano music player was among the top-selling electronic items on Amazon.com and some models sold out on a top retailer's Web site as consumers stocked up on holiday gifts on one of the year's busiest shopping days.

Apple's black iPod nano with 2 gigabytes of storage, or enough to hold 500 songs, was the sixth best-selling electronic gadget on Amazon.com's list of most popular items, which is updated hourly. A white version was No. 10 on the list. Amazon was selling the nanos for $199.88.

Retailer Best Buy Co.'s Web site was sold out of both the white and black versions of the 4-gigabyte nano priced at $249.99. A spokeswoman for the retailers said Best Buy limited the number of connections to its site due to heavy volume related to the launch of Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 video game console last week.

Best Buy was the retail launch partner for the new Xbox. The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the biggest shopping days as retailers offer deep discounts to bolster holiday sales.

Best Buy shares rose 3.3 percent, and stock of rival Circuit City Stores Inc. gained 2.4 percent. An Apple spokeswoman was not available for comment.

U.S. online holiday sales are expected to hit $20 billion this year and should take off on Monday, when consumers return to work and use fast Internet connections to buy gifts, according to comScore Networks.

Apple has sold more than 28 million iPods since they were introduced in 2001, helping revive fortunes of a company that was increasingly dwarfed by Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Windows desktop operating system. Apple has about 75 percent of the worldwide market for digital music players, according to market research firm NPD Group.

Apple introduced its credit card-sized nano in September to replace the iPod mini, then the best-selling iPod version. Tim Cook, Apple's worldwide head of sales and marketing, last month said demand for the nano was "staggering."