Also it was announced 6 months prior to release, was often sold out after it's release, and completely unavailable in most countries until months or years after initial release.

It was very much a halo product (at release, less so over time).

In fact, I would probably consider it as one of the most successful halo products ever - as it not only cast it's halo over the entire Mac+iPod product line, but it eventually became the revenue driver of the entire company.

Disagreement on the definition, or poorly explained personal example?

(EDIT: now that I think about it, our first iPods were the halo product that made me discard old Apple biases that I was carrying from the 90s.)