New iPods bring angst

The iPod may be the modern-day equivalent of the Red Ryder BB gun _ that all-consuming desire of Ralphie, the little protagonist of "A Christmas Story."

Every kid seemed to want an iPod this Christmas _ and many adults wanted one, too.

But an iPod, while far safer than a BB gun, can be no less problematic for the uninitiated.

"I was one of the last to join the e-mail bandwagon," said Sherri Fitts, of Providence, R.I., a clinical psychologist and confessed Luddite.

On Christmas Day, Fitts tried to set up an iPod Shuffle for her daughter, Emily. The digital music player was a gift from the 10-year-old's grandparents.

"I thought it wouldn't be that hard," Fitts said.

She was wrong.

After hours of trying, Fitts gave up so she'd have time to spend with her parents, who had come to spend the day.

"It's not the same as the (Sony) Walkman, where you just put in a battery and turn it on."

On the day after Christmas, Fitts called in reinforcements _ a computer-savvy friend _ to no avail.

"On Tuesday, I was ready to throw it out the window."

Instead, she got through to Apple's iPod help line and a technician talked her through the start-up process in a few minutes.

Fitts' experience may have been an extreme one, but she certainly wasn't the only person in the last week or so perplexed by the tiny gadgets.

In the week after Christmas, Fitts and other iPod neophytes headed online, to the phone or to a store for help setting up their new digital music players.

"It may be the exact thing that they wanted but they just don't know how to use it," said Matt Dworkin, a member of Best Buy's Geek Squad, the company's technology service team.

Apple has sold more than 28 million iPods since the MP3 players were introduced in 2001. This year, stock-market analysts predicted consumers would snap up from 9 million to 14 million of Apple's digital music players.

"Apple did such a great job marketing it, it's what people ask for when they come in," said Erik Burmeister, a salesman at the Circuit City in Cranston, R.I.

Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., introduced its credit-card-sized Nano in September to replace the iPod Mini, then the best-selling iPod version.

The company forecast that it would sell 5 million Nanos by Jan. 1. The company's head of sales, Tim Cook, told Reuters before Christmas that demand for the Nano was "staggering."

iPods were one of the top-selling electronic items on Amazon.com between Nov. 1 and Christmas, a period when the online retailer sold 108 million items overall.

With millions of iPod Nanos, Shuffles and Videos selling worldwide, Apple Computer Inc.'s Web site had the largest increase in visitors among the major brands in November, according to the latest figures available from consumer researcher Nielsen/NetRatings.

Expecting the demand for help to keep pace with iPod sales, Circuit City designated a sales associate in each of its 617 stores to run "how-to" sessions for customers last week. The company designated a computer station in each store to run iPod demonstrations.

"I expected quite a few (questions) after Christmas," said Eric Dieffenbach, Burmeister's department manager.

A dozen or so people a day came for the sessions during the early part of the week, in addition to customers asking stray questions, Burmeister said. The number dropped as the week wore on.

"Parents come in with their kids just to learn how to use it, too," Burmeister said Friday.

In the sessions, Circuit City employees gave customers a basic overview of how to charge the iPod battery, download music from a computer, and how to set up an iTunes account where they can buy songs.

On Friday, Burmeister helped Perry Caruso and his 14-year-old daughter, Lexi, learn about her new Nano.

Lexi's iPod Mini broke just before Christmas, so Caruso agreed to buy her a Nano to replace it.

"I already know how to put music in it," said the ninth-grader. "I want to learn how to put in pictures."

Dworkin, interviewed by phone from New Jersey, said he'd also been cautioning buyers to take iPods commercials _ which depict people dancing wildly with iPods in hand _ with a grain of salt.

"The iPod, despite the commercials, is not made for active lifestyles," he said. "We get a lot of people who end up killing their hard drives."

Once Fitts, of Providence, got past the initial problems of setting up her daughter's new Shuffle, she talked with Emily about how to care for the music player.

"There's a very real possibility that she might leave it somewhere or drop it," Fitts said.

But, she acknowledged, "I actually think it's a pretty cool thing."

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