Apple unveils a new IPod and a phone music player

Apple moved on Wednesday to extend its dominance over the digital music marketplace, introducing a compact iPod called the nano and confirming a widely reported digital music partnership with Motorola and Cingular.

The New York Times reports (8 September) that, with his usual showmanship, Apple's chairman, Steven P. Jobs, saved the introduction of the new solid-state version of the iPod for last, slipping it from the change pocket of his blue jeans at the end of a press event at the Moscone Convention Center here.

The iPod nano, which stores either 500 or 1,000 songs and is priced at US$199 and US$249, is intended to replace an existing model, the iPod Mini. The new device will be available in the United States, Japan and Europe this week.

The newspaper reports thhat, in an interview after his presentation, he called the new player, which is one of the industry's smallest, a "bold gamble."

By replacing the Mini, which accounts for more than half of all iPods currently sold, the company risked a huge revenue shortfall if the new product had been delayed, Mr. Jobs said. Despite that risk, he said, the nano reflects several innovations.

The NYT reported that Mr Jobs focused on the shift away from the small disk-drive storage device used in the iPod Mini to the solid-state flash memory at the heart of the nano. He said the custom chips and the miniaturized circuit board used in the nano had also been potential stumbling blocks.

Several analysts said that Apple had moved the introduction of the nano ahead to ensure it would be widely available for the holiday season.

The newspaper adds that most of the event on Wednesday was devoted to the unveiling of a Motorola cellphone called the Rokr E1 (pronounced rocker), which will incorporate Apple's iTunes music software and be capable of storing 100 songs. The phone, long anticipated, will be available exclusively on the Cingular Wireless network in the United States.

The phone, which will sell for US$250, has a color display, but requires that songs be downloaded from an iTunes-equipped personal computer by a U.S.B. cable. Cingular will not offer an iTunes service for buying songs directly over a cellphone connection.

The NYT reported that, in what appeared to be a direct challenge to the music industry, which has been struggling with him behind the scenes over Apple's growing influence in the music world, Mr. Jobs outlined in detail the strength of his digital music business.

He said Apple had sold half a billion digital songs and had 85 percent of the world market for digital music sales. The iTunes music service is now available in 20 countries, he said.

The newspaper said Mr Jobs noted that Apple had sold 6.2 million iPods of all models in the third quarter, comparing that figure to Sony's PlayStation Portable game machine, which sold two million during the same period.