Apple eyes bigger bite with new MP3 player

Apple Computer Inc. launched yesterday the iPod nano, its latest ultra-slim digital music player, with an aggressive pricing strategy and slick design that is expected to threaten Korean rivals. Looking like a minuscule version of its predecessor the iPod mini, the nano will be available from today with 2-gigabyte or 4-gigabyte memories, which can hold about 500 and 1,000 songs, respectively. And you can have any color you like, so long as it’s black or white. “Ipod nano will be replacing our best-selling iPod mini,” Tony Li, director of product marketing in Asia Pacific, said at a press briefing. The nano, less than 7 millimeters thick and weighing only 42 grams, uses NAND flash memory, whereas the iPod mini used a bulkier hard disk drive. Noting that Apple’s release of the iPod nano comes just a year and a half after the mini’s arrival, Mr. Li said MP3 players and other consumer electronics goods have an increasingly short shelf-life nowadays. An Apple spokesman said that the 2-gigabyte iPod nano will retail at 230,000 won ($224) and the 4-gigabyte model at 290,000 won, or roughly 30 percent cheaper than Korean brands such as ReignCom. by Seo Ji-eun