Dell Computer Corp. confirmed for MacCentral today that the company has stopped selling Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iPod MP3 player. Dell is discontinuing sales of the iPod because of changes Apple wants to implement in the reseller agreement between the two companies.
“We have already stopped selling the iPod — the old reseller agreement ended on March 31, 2003 and all SKUs have been turned off,” Mary Fad, a spokesperson for Dell Computer Corp., told MacCentral.
Fad confirmed that Apple wanted Dell to sign a new reseller agreement, but that Dell refused. She declined to outline specific details about the agreement that led Dell to make its decision, but did say that the company no longer had any iPods in stock.
“As part of the regular renewal process with Apple Authorized Resellers, we invited our resellers in the U.S. to sign new agreements as of April 1, 2003,” said Apple in a statement given to MacCentral. “Resellers that have not currently renewed made up less than 1.5 percent of Apple’s worldwide revenue in 2002. Since contracts only expired recently, some contracts continue to be signed.”
Apple announced in October 2002 that Dell and Target would both sell the company’s MP3 player through their reseller channels. Representatives from Target were not immediately available for comment on whether that company would sign the new agreement and continue to sell the iPod.