Why are ipod mini's coming out so slowly, and they aren't even at
stores either? I have to wait for 4 weeks untill my ipod mini ships
(from apple.com), how come?

Hi!

The Ipod mini uses a special small hard drive with a 4 GB capacity
which is produced by Hitachi. The problem is Hitachi is not able to
meet the demand from Apple for these small hard drives. The shortage
of these drives causes the delay.

However, last week Hitachi announced they will expand their
manuafacturing facility so that they can make more hard drives.
Hitachi expects that, because of this increase in production, the
shortage of the Ipod mini will be a lot less at the end of year.

"The six-week waiting list to get a popular iPod Mini digital music
player from Apple Computer Inc. is likely to get shorter by the end of
the year.
...
In March, Cupertino, California-based Apple (NasdaqNM:AAPL - News)
said it would delay global sales of the iPod Mini because it couldn't
get enough of the hard drives to meet U.S. demand, which had then
surpassed supply through June."
Source: IPodLounge.com
http://www.ipodlounge.com/ipodnews_comments.php?id=3897_0_7_0_C

More information can be found here:
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/05/17.1.shtml


Search strategy:
Google: ipod mini Hitachi

I hope you have enough information. If you need any more, please ask
for a clarification!

Thank you,
paul_b_18