Cheers, jeers for iPod Nano, Rokr

While the element of surprise may have been lacking in Apple's announcement of its newest family members Wednesday, the iPod Nano and Apple Rokr still managed to generate the kind of buzz we've come to expect surrounding any major Apple release. The company unveiled a sleek new flash-based iPod, replacing its Mini--a surprising move since the Mini is currently the best selling version of the music player. Its size--roughly the size of a business card--is undeniably impressive, but the slight increase in price per storage size has some balking.

The diminutive device stole the show from the much rumored iTunes Rokr, a phone with the capacity to hold up to 100 songs that some expected would be an "iPod killer" upon its release. The joint effort with Motorola and Cingular left many early observers unimpressed, mainly due to the small amount of storage and showy, yet ineffective, design elements.

Despite complaints surrounding both products, Apple's announcements put pressure on other manufacturers as the company continues to finesse its line of music players and sets the bar with a music phone that had generated massive interest long before its release.

Blog community response:

"In case you havn't seen it, its simply beautiful. Apple continues to amaze me, over and over and over again."
--Business Lit

"Makes the Mini look like the old version of the automobile, the nano is the flash player to get!"
--Yang

"Talk about an anticlimax. The lack of genuinely interesting news about this phone is the real story. This phone and service are late and lame."
--Bayosphere

"From the day it was born, the ROKR was trouble. Steve Jobs even had some trouble getting it to work the right way on stage--Jobs says he hit the wrong button, but people in the know say that the feature that lets you resume play after a phone call doesn't work properly. The screen isn't wide or colorful enough to do the music store justice. There is no support for Bluetooth headphones. But hey, thank goodness all the rumors of a 25-song capacity, 3G over-the-air downloads and $2 per song charges proved false."
--Gizmodo