Two days ago my boss gave me a cute and colorful box, gift wrapped and all. Inside it, was nice iPod Mini. Actually all the employees at Business 2.0 got one, and were pretty thrilled about it. I called up a few friends, and they said, their Christmas stocking (at least the corporate one) was stuffed with an iPod as well. Actually this is a trend, even perhaps Apple had not counted on. The company is having a sensational Christmas season, and according to The Wall Street Journal, there are severe shortages for the device.

The Journal says that Apple’s supply chain did not do a good enough job of keeping up with the demand. Actually that’s looking for something negative to say. Can’t it be that this is a situation that has surpassed even Apple’s own very optimisitc projections. Its not that Apple has anything against making money for god sake. With 5.7 million iPods already sold, the demand shows that other digital music players have their work cut out.

Surprising to many analysts is the fact that the iPod is increasing its market share every month, even as it faces an onslaught of lower-priced and improved devices from rivals including D&M Holdings Inc.’s Rio, Dell Inc. and others. Apple’s share of the market for digital-music players that store songs on hard disks rose to 92.7% in October, from 81% during the same month last year, according to NPD Group. Consumers have adopted the iPod faster than they did Sony Corp.’s Walkman in its early days, about six million of which sold in the Sony device’s sixth year on the market, estimates Piper & Jaffray Co. analyst Gene Munster.

In case you were wondering about Christmas season, here is what I wrote about iPod only a week ago.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Steve Jobs & Co. are about to have their best season ever.