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Although it went platinum, Fair Warning didn't match the multi-platinum standards of Van Halen's first three records, so the group revamped their sound slightly for the follow-up, Diver Down. Adding the slightest hints of synthesizers and streamlining both the guitar indulgences of Eddie Van Halen and the vocal excesses of David Lee Roth, the album contained some of the group's most pop-oriented performances -- and they were all in the guise of covers. "(Oh) Pretty Woman" and "Dancing in the Street" had the traditional mechanical Van Halen rhythmic pulse, as well as concise solos from Eddie and restrained vocals from Diamond Dave, which helped them become the hits they were designed to be. If they were offset by more original material like "Hang 'Em High," the concessions would have been acceptable, but the rest of Diver Down is filled with covers, including "Big Bad Bill," "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?," and a closing "Happy Trails." All of the songs are professionally performed, and the music features more ideas than most previous Van Halen albums, but the lack of strong original material makes Diver Down less of an accomplishment than it appears. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Analyst: iPod sales down
Report concludes that quarterly sales of the dominant portable music player could fall short of Wall Street estimates.
Are sales of the vaunted iPod falling off?
That's the question raised by prominent Wall Street analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray in a research note today.
Munster looked at data from NPD Group for April and sought to extrapolate the data for the rest of the quarter. Wall Street had been projecting sales of 8.6 million iPods for the quarter, but Munster said current data indicated sales will come in closer to 8 million. He pinned his estimate at 8.25 million.
Munster issued the report, however, with a caveat. He noted that May and June have dominated iPod sales for the quarter in past years, with June accounting for nearly 42 percent of the quarter's sales.
"As a result of 'Grads and Dads' buying, we believe May and June iPod sales will likely be better than what was seen in April," he wrote. "When the second month of data is released, our analysis will likely lead to a slightly different iPod unit figure than what our analysis suggests based on the first month of data."
Given that historical trend, Munster initially came up with an estimate of 8.9 million iPods sold this quarter.
"In the previous quarters, however, we have found that extrapolation of the first month data typically overshot the actual reported iPod unit number for the quarter, so we are removing 10 percent from the initial unit estimate."
Apple has sold more than 50 million iPods since introducing the first iPod in October 2001. The company said it sold 8.5 million iPods during the quarter that ended April 1, down from the 14 million it sold during the quarter that included the holiday shopping season, but up 61 percent from the same period a year ago.
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