Apple Computer Inc. has unveiled a pencil-thin "iPod nano" digital music player aimed at extending its domination of the digital music market.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs also said that in 2006, some 30 percent of all new U.S. cars will sport stereos that can easily connect to the iPod.
The seriously slimmed-down nano -- about a quarter of an inch (0.6 cm) thick, 3-1/2 inches (9 cm) long and 1-1/2 inches (4 cm) wide -- drew "oohs" and "ahhs" from the audience at the product release in San Francisco, outdoing the buzz generated by the Rokr phone, which some said failed to meet high expectations for design.
The nano players, either all black or all white, are nearly as small as the entry-level iPod Shuffle but sport click wheels, and hold up to 1,000 songs for the 4 GB model or about 500 songs for the 2 GB model.
Apple has about 75 percent of the market for digital music players, with iPod sales about one-third of its total revenue, and Jobs said competitors had set their sights on the iPod mini, which he said was Apple's best-selling iPod model.
The nano replaces the mini, and Gartner analyst Van Baker said that Apple -- which has sold 21 million iPods since introducing them in 2001 -- has moved the goal posts farther down the field with the nano. "It changes the rules of the game," Baker said.
The iPod nano uses flash memory chips to store songs and photos, rather than the hard-disk drives that the iPod mini and the larger iPods use.
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