Recipients of iPods and iTunes gift cards swarmed over Apple’s music store over the last few days, apparently causing 20 minute slowdowns and error messaging. Beginning this past Monday, onliners began to post frantic “help me” messages on their tech forum.

Still looking into the situation, Apple must surely be feeling the cash flow, since online market researcher Hitwise has reported that 4 times as many shoppers visited the iTunes website on Christmas this season as compared to last year. As of now, Apple dominates that market by about 75%, however increased competition could cost them as much as 5% in 2007, according to research analyst Gene Munster.