What's Apple's endgame? I agree with you, Felix, the price differential is not enough to justify sacrificing all that memory. The iPod does actually fit into my pocket, just like the ad claims, and since it's a liberation from a portable CD player or mini-disc player (complete with CDs or MDs), it still feels like a small and compact device. At least to normal people (vs. tech geeks) like me.

Obviously Apple is keeping the Mini expensive or deliberately weak on power - otherwise it would sorely cannibalize the original iPod range. But why not just migrate the whole shebang to the Mini? Apple could probably charge a slight premium if it discontinued the original line, and flummox competitors.

I own the original 5GB iPod. I would consider buying a new one, even just the 10GB one. If it came out in Mini size, that would be even better. I'm not going to trade up for less power. But I might trade up and spend a little extra for more power and smaller size.

Felix, how dare you align this site with the whiners and the cheapskates and the visionless. These people (you, evidently, among them) are repeating history: witness the outpouring of contempt for the pricing of the original iPod from Apple loyalists (who always demand something for nothing from Steve Jobs, as if you can live on love alone). Meanwhile, I was busy buying mine. Eventually, the all went and got theirs too.

iPod mini is aimed at people (and when I say people I mean Japanese teenagers) with an entirely different set of priorities. Don't misunderestimate the power of color: Apple cam back from oblivion on the back of this strategy. Don't belittle the small form factor -- It's the size of a business card! iPod mini exists for the same reason there is a 17 inch Powerbook and a 12 incher.

Finally, it will cost 200 bucks 6 months from now. In the meantime, early adopters are being asked to pay for the bragging rights while Apple gets the assembly line into full swing. The thing will be exclusive just long enough for everybody to wish they could afford one. And then they will.

It's pure, unadulterated brilliance on the part of Steve Jobs.

iPod mini exists for the same reason there is a 17 inch Powerbook and a 12 incher.

ah, right. so the old iPod is basically something which is designed to sit on your desk and look impressive, but with a little bit of portability at the margin if you really need to carry it somewhere. Not that you'd really want to try using it on an airplane, not unless you were in First Class. The iPod mini, on the other hand, is a more portable machine, designed for people who are always on the go, and need a full-powered machine in as small a space as possible.

No! Don't you see? The iPod Original is the equivalent of the 12" Powerbook, the small machine with big capabilities. The iPod mini is the equivalent of the G4 Cube, a pretty little thing, but one which nobody could quite work out what they were meant to do with it.

And my whole point is that people aren't sitting around dreaming of being able to afford an iPod mini, because they don't covet an iPod mini. They're sitting around dreaming of being able to afford an iPod, and wondering if saving $50 and losing 11GB of hard-drive space is good enough.

Bizarrely, I'm actually vaguely qualified to opine on this front, since I have both an iPod and a Casio Exilim, which is (tada!) exactly the size of a business card. Do I find the iPod significantly more of a pain in the arse to carry around than the Casio? No!

Well, iPod-mini will sell, I agree to that.
My teenage daughter wants one, colours are better, the orginal iPod is to "guyish" "to techy" in her words.
But my dear daughter, it has a larger harddisk?
"Who cares, I want a pink one"

Apple has done a really smart move unleashing the miniPods upon us.

Felix, that is the most stupid comment I've read in ages. Certainly on this site. Seeing that you wrote it at an ungodly hour, your time, I will let you plead diminÌshed capacity when you come round.

Does this make the iPod mini the new tamagochi or the new cabbage patch doll? I'm so confused.

In my sad new attempt to prevent myself becoming one of Eurof's lactation buddies, I started jogging. There is a point here, bear with me. It's possibly the dullest experience of my life thus far and the only way I can force myself around Sara D. Roosevelt park for half an hour at the crack of dawn is to listen to music. Country works well, I discovered, because it has a regular beat that is, above all else, slow. Turns my morning run into more of a lope, but never mind. I stole Kimmy's ipod for the purpose; she has one of the originals. And yes--here is the grand conclusion--it is too heavy. Keeps threatening to bounce off my waistband and onto the unforgiving (and, as I found, uneven) parkway. (Even if it isn't, what's wrong with a bit of product differentiation now and then? Not everyone, thankfully, has tastes like Felix.)

there are two other 4GB players on the market

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/company/press.asp?ID=599

rio nitrus: same HD capacity, better battery life, bigger, no firewire, same price as mini.

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=3&subcategory=20&product=8980

creative labs muvo2: same HD capacity, better battery life, bigger, no firewire, $50 more than mini.

either apple and the ipod mini are right on target with their price point, or all

the real scoop is; next year - iImplants! download straight to the dome, just like in the movies.

Matthew,

I've got one of the originals, and if you compare it to the second generation, it's a bit heavier. However I'm still thinking about getting a mini. I really don't need to have my entire music collection with me all the time. 1000 songs is enough and if I want to I can change my playlists. After all I've got 160 gigs of space on my external to hold my library.

Plus size is a factor. It's nice to have some more space in my pockets when I carry this around. They'll drop the price probably, but don't forget there are a lot of people who don't need 15 gigs of space for music, let alone 40.

However I wouldn't give it Cabbage Patch doll status yet. I'm part of that demographic that doesn't care that the price will drop fifty bucks in a week, and I did want an icube but bought an ibook instead.

gherm

If the iPod mini had a Tamagotchi functionality, I'd be all over it.

If Apple really wants the Japanese teenage market, or MemeFirst readers, then it should install sensors on iPods that notify you if another iPod comes within say 15 meters. And it can tell you if it's an original or a mini, so you can make up your mind whether to approach them, and then you can talk about what music you're porting around and maybe have sex. How cool would that be?