Macworld spoke with Apple"s iPod worldwide product marketing manager Danika Cleary as the company prepares to ship its new iPod mini in the US on Friday. Apple has already taken 100,000 pre-orders for the iPod mini, the company announced yesterday. Apple"s senior VP worldwide product marketing, Phil Schiller, described response to the new product as "off the charts". The 3.6-ounce, 4GB-capacity product is aimed at the high-end of the existing flash memory-based music player market, but offers more capability than existing products in that market.
As well as a higher capacity and award-winning design, the cross-platfom iPod mini uses the same connector as third-generation iPods. This means that existing third-party peripherals should work with the new product, which can also be used as an external FireWire disk, Cleary confirmed. Cleary told Macworld: "The iPod mini is smaller and at a slightly lower price. It"s very fashionable, so it may appeal to women or younger people who may not have considered an iPod previously."