Apple’s products are poised to be among the holiday winners. But could the shortages that plagued the Amazon Kindle and Nintendo Wii in their early days of production put a damper on Apple’s sales?

According to a research note from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu on Wednesday, Apple is tasked to keep up with the strong demand for iPods. That could lead to shortages during the holiday shopping season.

Wu isn’t merely speculating. He pointed to Amazon.com’s recent change for the shipping instance of the 8GB second-generation iPod touch from 11 days to five weeks, while the 16GB model is available within three to five weeks. That puts both models out of the range of holiday shoppers.

Spot Shortages

“In addition, from our distribution and channel checks, iPod touch, iPod nano, and even iPod shuffle are seeing spot shortages on different colors and capacities across several retailers, including Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and Crutchfield.com,” Wu wrote.

“Frankly, we find these sell-outs on iPods surprising given how difficult the macroeconomic environment is, putting a crimp on consumer spending,” Wu continued. “From our assessment, we believe iPod is holding up better than most, due to its relatively low [price] and strong consumer understanding of the value it provides.”

Apple Bucks Economic Trends?

Apple introduced a new iPod touch in September. At that moment, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called it “the funnest iPod we’ve ever created.” The new iPod touch is smaller and lighter than the original, with a new design that features a contoured metal enclosure with integrated volume control buttons and a brilliant 3.5-inch widescreen glass display.

“Even as some analysts were predicting a slowdown in iPod sales, we are seeing these shortages come into play, which may indicate that the iPod is doing better than some folks might have expected for the holidays,” said Michael Gartenberg,…

Original post by dhiram