The iPod Minis that Apple's Steve Jobs unveiled this week are intended to bridge the gap between today's powerful but expensive iPods and the rest of the music player market. Many of the iPod's rivals use memory chips instead of hard drives, so they are cheaper, but they hold far less music. The iPod Minis will cost $249, or £138 at today's exchange rate, although the UK price will be much higher: £199.

As such they cost more (and, in the UK, much more) than the sub-£100 players they are intended to compete with. However, Apple is banking on their far greater capacity and more pleasing aesthetics to persuade customers to spend a little more. "It's the best $50 you'll ever spend," promised Jobs at the MacExpo show. For your money, you'll get a tiny device: a half-inch thick business card-sized aluminium sliver in silver, gold, blue, pink or green. Its 4GB hard drive will hold around 1,000 songs, and the device sports the same scroll wheel and user interface that has won the bigger iPod such plaudits.