Seems everywhere you look this holiday season, you see the iPod Nano.
The sleek little music player is making all the top tech gift lists, is featured in the major electronics retailers' circulars and continues to be one of Amazon.com's best-selling electronic gadgets.
But some consumers haven't been so quick to move away from one of last year's hot holiday gifts: the iPod Mini. Even though Apple Computer discontinued the Mini in September and replaced it with the Nano, these folks have been reluctant to take the Mini off their gift lists--and they're willing to pay top dollar to nab one.
Patrick McHenry of Erie, Pa., for example, just bought a pink 4GB Mini, which holds 1,000 songs, on eBay for $275. That's $76 over the original $199 price tag. But it's also less than McHenry would have paid at Compu-America--one of the few electronics retailers with the Mini in stock. The store is selling the same model for $349. And sellers on Amazon are listing prices for the 4GB Mini at more than $400.
So why would anyone pay so much for a Mini when they could buy the smaller and (some say) technologically superior 4GB Nano for $249, or even the new 30GB video iPod, which holds 7,500 songs, for $299?
In McHenry's case, it was to fulfill the Christmas wish of his friend's girlfriend. "She had her heart set on an iPod Mini mainly because they are discontinued, so not many people would have them," he said.
His friend's girlfriend appears to be just one of many fans of the Mini, which, unlike the Nano, comes in a 6GB version, and in a vibrant rainbow of colors: pink, blue, green, silver and gold.
In the past three months, about 36,000 Minis have sold on eBay, with the pace of sales picking up in the past couple of weeks, eBay spokesman Dean Jutilla said. As of Friday afternoon, 2,200 Mini auctions were under way on the site, he said.
The Mini has been averaging 15 to 16 bids per auction. That shows a strong demand, Jutilla added, especially when compared to the hot-ticket 4GB Nano, which is clocking in just slightly higher on eBay bids, at 18. And the average price per Mini--whether 4GB or 6GB--has gone up from $173 to $229, he added.
In living color Compu-America sales manager Fred Rafi said he noticed a retail shortage for the Mini and last week decided to buy a bunch (he wouldn't say how many), even though he had to pay well over the retail price. He marked them up even further, and although he admits that it's kind of crazy, "people are buying them."
"I think it's because of Christmas, and a lot of people just still like the Mini."
Jeremy Horwitz, editor-in-chief of popular iPod site iLounge, said "there's no reason to prefer the iPod Mini (over the Nano) on technical specs." The Nano is faster, has better audio quality and a color screen, among other advantages, he said. So he can only guess that people are paying more for the Mini because it's now rare, comes in more colors, and, he said, is sturdier than the Nano, which has been accused of scratching easily.
"The Nano comes in black and white. Those colors aren't quite as fun," Horwitz said, adding that there also isn't a 6GB Nano, so there's no "intermediate step" for those who were ready to move up from a 4GB.
Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research, adds that the marked-up prices for Minis might simply be explained by the laws of supply and demand. "The availability of the iPod Mini appears to be limited...We saw a similar effect with the G4 Cubes when they were discontinued."
Wu said pricing might be a factor. With the introduction of the Nano, Apple upped the price for 4GB of storage by $50 to $249. The 6GB Mini cost the same as what the 4GB Nano now costs.
Apple has sold more than 28 million iPods overall since the players were introduced in October 2001, and some say the Mini, which came out in January 2004, accounted for just less than half that number.
The company ended up bringing the product to market, anyway, knowing that "there are a lot of iPod owners who remain loyal to their model, regardless of the latest introductions by Apple," marketing director Christine Taylor said. "We felt that there was kind of a 'cult' surrounding the iPod Mini, and we wanted to redesign our PodFreq to attract those folks," she said, adding that the company's related slogan for add-ons is "love your iPod even longer."
Given the prices people are willing to pay for Minis, some might call it punch-drunk love, or in the following case, simply drunk love: An eBay member from the United Kingdom, who didn't want his name used for this story, recently ended paying $359.86 as the winning bidder of a blue 6GB Mini.
Why did he do it? "Errr, to be honest, I didn't know I was paying over the odds," he wrote. "I was pretty drunk when I was bidding."
Flash is still expensive. Portable harddrives are getting more space. I see quite good niche at about 8-10GB space for new Minis. But of course it is Apple who will decide. (IMHO, from business POV, it make no sense. But see below.)
One thing for sure: experiment with colored players went extremly well, especially with female audience appreciating color selection and well made and nice looking accesories.
I hope Apple will not disregard that fact and release colored players again. I think colored Nanos would be great hit.
P.S. Another point. From all media players I have tried, I think only Minis got the size right. It fits right to my hand. And it light and thin enough to sit well in my pockets - unlike lighter Nano you will not forget that Mini is there.
I got one as a gift and I like it. Fits nice in the hand and looks good to boot. Personally, I don't like things that are too small. Just makes them easier to loose or break.
Apple have done the Nano in black and white, yet there's obviously still a demand for coloured exteriors. Perhaps there will be an April release in time for the northern summer of the Trop-iPod. Nanos in the shades of summer, mango, berry, melon, citus and cool breeze?
I think overall the mini is much more resilient than the nano. My teenage son has a mini and I wouldn't have even considered getting him a nano if that was all that was available.
"What?! Me worry?!" Yes... Buying electronic products without warranties and support is as good as throwing away your money... So just make sure you're getting them...
I JUST LOVE MY MINI!!!!!!!!!!!! i dunno y.. but there is just nothing about it i dont like... some ppl say that the nano is better quality etc.. KRAP!!!!!! JUST COMPLETE LIES!!!!!!!! my friend has a nano, and the front side is full of dents and scrapes because it is plastic... just cheap plastik.. now, the mini is metal and is very durable.. all in all, GO MINI!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just picked up a mini for a great deal from a Mac dealer in Oregon (NO SALES TAX!) I don't know if they have any more in stock, but it's worth checking out:
Silly People always do SIlly stupid things so why should the mini or the sschmini or the wamini kamini nbamini whateverini be any different! Pay pay pay! At least it is an American company although the things are made in other lands
This isn't the first time that Apple has had a run of success, only to pick up product cycling and blow it all, damning them to obscurity for another decade or so.
Flashback to 1995. Apple has a slough of Powerbooks on the market, but Windows-based laptops are starting to eat away at the market share. Ultimately, the line as a whole is in decline. The 100 series computers have major heat issues with the new 68040s, so they go back to the drawing board and produce the 500 series. The design and technology all reflect a promising direction for the new 68040 architecture, and with a wide array of features completely unheard of elsewhere, the 500 series is poised to set Apple up for dominance of the market once again.
So if you were Apple, you'd probably play to your strengths and beef up your bottom line while annihilating the competition.
Unfortunately for Apple, Apple is Apple, so they promptly discontinued the 500 series and released the 5300 series, digging themselves into a whole from which they are likely never to recover.
As a former 540C owner, the parallels hit a little close to home for me.
I just picked up two refurbished Minis from Apple. 4GB goes for $179, 6GB for $199 including shipping. These carry full warranties, are eligible for AppleCare, and are available (at least they were two weeks ago) in all colors, and arrive quickly (I got mine in 4 days). Why bother paying inflated eBay and Amazon prices when you can get the real thing directly from Apple?
How can you think you've answered the question about whay someone would want an obsolete iPod Mini without mentioning that the Mini supports FireWire, whereas the nano only supports USB2.0?????
Firewire is not an important feature to most people for an MP3 player. They really don't know or care that firewire is faster. And honestly, I lost my firwire cable months ago and have been perfectly happy using the USB connection. With the exception of filling the device to begin with, i think the daily transfers are so small that the speed difference doesn't matter.
Standard Firewire is just as fast as USB 2.0. So lets think..........ohhh, more people have USB than Firewire. Soon a new Firewire will be released, but until then i will go with USB
USB 2.0 may be rated as "faster" than FireWire, but this simply is not the case.
The 480MBs of USB 2.0 are a theoretical maximum that are only achieved at burst rates. In other words. USB 2.0 sends out pulses of data that may or may not hit the maximum throughput. Furthermore, USB 2.0 offs more processing of the data back on to the CPU instead of processing it in the USB controller.
Firewire, on the other hand, while it may rarely achieve its maximum throughput, Firewire does not burst data on throughput. Instead, Firewire sends out a more constant and even stream of data. As a result, the overall throughput of data is faster than USB 2.0. Furthermore, Firewire offs very little data processing back to the CPU which also improves the "speed" at which data flows out the port and leaves the processor time to do more important tasks.
The issue with Firewire on Windows based PCs is that few laptops have a Firewire port. Those laptops which do have built- in Firewire generally have a 4-pin connector (the kind on DV cameras) and this connector does not supply any power to the device. Then there is Windows' ad hock hack of Firewire support.
....we don't really know what the friend's girlfriend does for a living now do we?
The nano is really cool, but I think Apple should have continued with making different colors. I guess their sales prove otherwise, but I know I love my silver mini.
I felt betrayed with Apple unceremoniously dumped the Mini for the sleeker Nano. However, the Nano is just too sleek for its own good and as clumsy as I am, I'd break it in a heartbeat. I stand by the larger Mini (mine is green) and its more rugged exterior.
Steve "forgot" that not everybody has USB 2.0 when he dropped FireWire from the Nano and the 5G iPod. That makes the mini perfect for recipients whose Macs are more than a year or two old.
OK. He didn't forget. He wants us to buy new Macs. Again.
Actually I don't think he cares. It was nice to test out the iPod on the macs back when they had a moving scrollwheel, but a lot of PCs don't have 6-pin firewire.
Being that a majority of their sales goes to PC customers it makes more sense to remove firewire support to save money than to buy the firewire chips and ship a worthless (for most) cable.
iPod is greek for return every 2 months for repair
How about we talk about how awful and unreliable iPods are. 5 of them in my family, mini had the screen crack, shuffle just died, all 3 nano's have the mysterious problem with battery/power failure. The only good side of this is that Apple service is getting pretty good and fixing them and returning them. Everyone else I talk to has the same problem. Cool product, when it works!
You are not alone, Ipod has been returned over 5 times. Apple always replaces, and we purchased extended coverage. But we have received no advice - help etc to determine if its a software issue or what is going on. Just look at the apple discussion board to see how many there are out there.
1. it was the right price point 200-250 dollars people wanted to pay for a music player
2. It was the right storage size. Apple researchers found that people had around 1000-2000 songs.
3. It was fashionable but durable. Unlike the current iPods the mini's allowed some individuality besides the basic white. Also the mini's ipods years after they were purchased look identical to when they first purchased. The classic white iPod gets dirty the screen gets scratched the nano's screen gets broken. This all happens with standard use. The classic ipod gets scratched by the lint in your pockets.
By not scratching the iPod retains it value better and therefore has a greater resale value. Since they have discontinued it.. its a simple case of supply and demand with no suitable subsitute.
If you are not a hard core iPod fan and you don't want to spend a fortune you don't want it scratched the iPod mini is STILL the only mp3 player that fits those specificiations.
I think Apple has kept the pace of change it has in this case to draw precisely the kind of attention this article has. Apple keeps coming out with superb products, and I bet if the nano were discontinnued in January you'd see the same kind of demand next year.
Out of all the Ipods, the mini is the perfect size and weight. Plus, the price is more favorable than the Nano (4GB $199-mini vs. $249-nano). Personally, I think the Nano is too small and should not hav replaced the Mini. If Apple wanted to invent the Nano, that should be just an addition to the Ipod family, not in place of the best one!!
had no idea the mini has suddenly become a hot thing. but it makes a lot of sense why. got my husband 1 for christmas - was lucky to have been able to buy my friend's unused silver mini. my husband has a power book and the silver ipod mini is the only one in the ipod family that matches the color. also at 4-6 gb, just the right size, it seems to be the perfect ipod. apple really should bring it back.
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One thing for sure: experiment with colored players went extremly well, especially with female audience appreciating color selection and well made and nice looking accesories.
I hope Apple will not disregard that fact and release colored players again. I think colored Nanos would be great hit.
P.S. Another point. From all media players I have tried, I think only Minis got the size right. It fits right to my hand. And it light and thin enough to sit well in my pockets - unlike lighter Nano you will not forget that Mini is there.
I say keep the Mini.
I just picked up a mini for a great deal from a Mac dealer in Oregon (NO SALES TAX!) I don't know if they have any more in stock, but it's worth checking out:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.ecartdeluxe.com/macpac/search.php?posted=1&stext=ipod+mini&sprice=&stype=&scat=ms99999&sortBy=&sortord=" target="_newWindow">http://www.ecartdeluxe.com/macpac/search.php?posted=1&stext=ipod+mini&sprice=&stype=&scat=ms99999&sortBy=&sortord=</a>
Joey
Flashback to 1995. Apple has a slough of Powerbooks on the market, but Windows-based laptops are starting to eat away at the market share. Ultimately, the line as a whole is in decline. The 100 series computers have major heat issues with the new 68040s, so they go back to the drawing board and produce the 500 series. The design and technology all reflect a promising direction for the new 68040 architecture, and with a wide array of features completely unheard of elsewhere, the 500 series is poised to set Apple up for dominance of the market once again.
So if you were Apple, you'd probably play to your strengths and beef up your bottom line while annihilating the competition.
Unfortunately for Apple, Apple is Apple, so they promptly discontinued the 500 series and released the 5300 series, digging themselves into a whole from which they are likely never to recover.
As a former 540C owner, the parallels hit a little close to home for me.
not the case.
The 480MBs of USB 2.0 are a theoretical maximum that are only
achieved at burst rates. In other words. USB 2.0 sends out pulses
of data that may or may not hit the maximum throughput.
Furthermore, USB 2.0 offs more processing of the data back on
to the CPU instead of processing it in the USB controller.
Firewire, on the other hand, while it may rarely achieve its
maximum throughput, Firewire does not burst data on
throughput. Instead, Firewire sends out a more constant and
even stream of data. As a result, the overall throughput of data
is faster than USB 2.0. Furthermore, Firewire offs very little data
processing back to the CPU which also improves the "speed" at
which data flows out the port and leaves the processor time to
do more important tasks.
The issue with Firewire on Windows based PCs is that few
laptops have a Firewire port. Those laptops which do have built-
in Firewire generally have a 4-pin connector (the kind on DV
cameras) and this connector does not supply any power to the
device. Then there is Windows' ad hock hack of Firewire support.
The nano is really cool, but I think Apple should have continued with making different colors. I guess their sales prove otherwise, but I know I love my silver mini.
Nice journalistic standards *snark*
FireWire from the Nano and the 5G iPod. That makes the mini
perfect for recipients whose Macs are more than a year or two old.
OK. He didn't forget. He wants us to buy new Macs. Again.
the macs back when they had a moving scrollwheel, but a lot of PCs
don't have 6-pin firewire.
Being that a majority of their sales goes to PC customers it makes
more sense to remove firewire support to save money than to buy
the firewire chips and ship a worthless (for most) cable.
video and that works great to. If you don't like 'em, don't buy
them.
So, to answer you, "How about we talk about how awful and
unreliable iPods are."
How about we don't.
always replaces, and we purchased extended coverage. But we
have received no advice - help etc to determine if its a software
issue or what is going on. Just look at the apple discussion
board to see how many there are out there.
1. it was the right price point 200-250 dollars people wanted to pay for a music player
2. It was the right storage size. Apple researchers found that people had around 1000-2000 songs.
3. It was fashionable but durable. Unlike the current iPods the mini's allowed some individuality besides the basic white. Also the mini's ipods years after they were purchased look identical to when they first purchased. The classic white iPod gets dirty the screen gets scratched the nano's screen gets broken. This all happens with standard use. The classic ipod gets scratched by the lint in your pockets.
By not scratching the iPod retains it value better and therefore has a greater resale value. Since they have discontinued it.. its a simple case of supply and demand with no suitable subsitute.
If you are not a hard core iPod fan and you don't want to spend a fortune you don't want it scratched the iPod mini is STILL the only mp3 player that fits those specificiations.
makes a lot of sense why. got my husband 1 for christmas - was
lucky to have been able to buy my friend's unused silver mini. my
husband has a power book and the silver ipod mini is the only one
in the ipod family that matches the color. also at 4-6 gb, just the
right size, it seems to be the perfect ipod. apple really should bring
it back.