On the iPod Mini

I admit, I was surprised, too, when the iPod mini was tagged with a $249 price tag when the 15GB iPod is only $299 (I was surprised they introduced it at all, despite all the rumors), but two bits of information Apple assumed people would know and so didn't say have changed my mind:

1. Small things usually cost more. This is pretty obvious, but we tend to forget it. Think in terms of the iPod versus those tiny flash players -- as I've learned by searching for flash cards for my camera, you have to pay a lot more for flash memory than you do for a big computer hard drive.

2. The market Apple is going after, the flash-player market, is full of comparably priced products that provide far less storage capacity. The iPod mini is a viable alternative there, but Apple consumers are so attuned to the iPod and comparable hard drive players that they have no idea how the other half lives (or the other 20 percent, I guess).

Note: The iPod has 30 percent of the market. Flash players have 20 percent altogether. What's up with the other 50 percent? I assume it belongs to other hard-drive players with less individual market share. Perhaps the better way to see it is an 80 percent market share for HD players, with the iPod having the biggest chunk?

Here's an article that shows how the iPod mini's price may have justification: Mac.Ars takes on the iPod Mini.