iTunes swamped for the holidays

Written by Brett Thomas

December 28, 2006 | 14:04

Tags: #ipod #itms #itunes

Companies: #apple

Well, the holiday is over, and it's back to the grind (well, for some of us at least). Of course, it was nice to be able to take my little break - I know the servers over in Apple-land didn't even get one. In fact, they got worked harder than ever - almost to the point of going down entirely.

This holiday season twas the season of the iPod, apparently. So many iPods and iTunes gift cards were given over the past few days that iTunes hasn't been able to keep up with demand. On the 25th and 26th, the servers teetered precariously on the edge of going down entirely, which would be a new record for a service that has sold in the billions of songs.

Those unlucky shoppers who tried to purchase music were met with hour-long waits and even sometimes just plain error messages. Many of them went to seek help at Apple's forums, thinking it was a problem with their new goods - but the problem apparently lies with the estimated more than four times usual traffic at any given moment.

Analysts are saying that the slowdown illustrates exactly how much of a juggernaut the iPod really is - even beyond Cupertino's own expectations. Rationale falls along the lines that sales had to exceed Apple's own forecasts this holiday, or else servers would have been put into place to handle the chaos. For a company that already dominates over 75% of the MP3 player world, the question now becomes: where does it go from here?

Have you got a thought on the slowdown? Did you get an iPod, iTunes, or iSomething for Christmas that helped contribute to it? Tell us in our forums.
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