STYLE AND SUBSTANCE
I finally had a chance to fondle the mini iPod today, and I'm not the least bit surprised that they're flying out of the stores. They're beautiful and cute at the same time. And how often do you really need to carry around more than 1,000 songs? In this case, style represents a huge quality improvement, regardless of what capacity-obsessed analysts may have thought.
Thanks to Jeff Taylor for sending this article about the early sales results:
Apple found sweet success last year with the original iPod, which, paired with legitimate song service iTunes, has won the company dominant market position in both market sectors. Apple said it intends to broaden the market further for iPod by pushing the mini version--a 3.6-ounce player capable of holding 1,000 CD-quality songs.
Early indications are that iPod mini, which garnered more than 100,000 preorders since being announced in January, is outdoing the success of the original iPod, which sold 125,000 units in its first quarter of availability, Apple said.
"The customer response has been incredible--it's just been off the charts," Apple worldwide iPod marketing manager Danika Cleary told TechNewsWorld. "It's meeting and exceeding our expectations."
Referring to long lines at Apple stores for the iPod-mini debut, Cleary said the smaller player, priced at US$250, is riding the wave of popularity generated by the original iPod, which Apple has sold to more than 2 million customers. The company sold 730,000 of the music players during the holiday quarter alone, she reported.
The mini's stylish charm is captivating even tech columnists:
At a Best Buy store in Manhattan a week ago Friday, they lined up to plunk down $250 on the newest flavor, the iPod Mini. Queues like this one used to form only on very special occasions--the release of a Rolling Stones album, Springsteen tickets--but not for a battery-operated music player. By 7 p.m., the thing was sold out. "Try next week," said the clerk. "Come early."
Cuddliness has been one key in driving the success of iPods in the past couple of years. And, this low-carb South Beach model arrives in a rainbow of metallic hues. Compared to its snow-white big brother, the Mini is less than half the size and only about half as heavy. The guts, however, are a different can of technology: While the least-expensive "normal" iPod spins a dense 15-gig hard drive that holds nearly 4,000 tunes, Junior is built around a 4GB Hitachi-built hard disc with a max capacity of about 1,000 songs.
The difference in price is $50; the trade-off--sex and style and wow, for more data storage in the more expensive large 'Pod--is your choice to make.
Of course, I'll choose the Mini. For cachet, it's without peer, the Louis Vuitton of portable audio. Sonically, it's a match for anything else MP3-ish on the market.
I didn't buy a mini iPod today, but that doesn't mean I didn't want to.