Apple is set to begin a worldwide rollout of the iPod Mini music player after phenomenal US sales of the 4GB player.
Of course, while being a big fan of Apple, I have to admit the egg on my face over the iPod Mini. I figured that the $249 price point of the iPod Mini would make it a flop, but it appears that people are going for style over substance.
Personally, I bought a 15GB third-generation iPod this spring and absolutely adore the thing, and I use far more than 4GB of storage just for my music (not to mention the fact that I use my iPod to back up my documents and other large files), so an iPod Mini would be too small for my uses. Still, Apple has a winner here, and the gamble that porting iTunes to Windows would generate more hardware sales seems to have paid off. It certainly did in my case, and I’ve bought all my music exclusively from iTunes since then – after all, the first thing I do when I get a new CD is rip it into iTunes anyway, and I don’t particularly care about liner notes or a physical disc (which I can burn through iTunes if necessary).
I’m thinking I’m going to BBQ my crow…
There is no doubt the iPod and its smaller brother are the best portable digital players on the market…their design and ease of use blows away the competition, at least for now…
With the iPod Apple showed its strength once again: innovative, cutting edge design…
Not to mention a stellar ability to make technology cool to people. I mean, they’re the must-have fashion accessory. How often does technology take on that role?
Not only is Apple a technical innovator, they’re a cultural innovator. I just hope we can save our iPods from folks like Orrin Hatch.
Don’t forget Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-Disney)…
“precious entertainment” – hah! we’re talking money here, man! i work in controls engineering and often we have to step back and remind ourselves that “these are just coffee beans!!” or “these are just potatoe chips!”
I bought a 15gb a few weeks ago for my frequent travels and adore the ease-of-use and sexy design. I was home at my parent’s house for one weekend and my brother was so sold on the design. We went out to Fry’s and took a look at the flash players and hard drive players and he decided the 4gb was really a good deal. Flash players don’t hold enough (or are very expensive for the size–512mb is really expensive), and the other hard drive players were too chunky for him (he jogs and exercises a lot). That’s when I realized what a great niche the 4gb is. Plus, it is just so beautiful at the size it is. My 15gb looks so huge compared to it.