Can 27 million people be wrong? This is the approximate number of iPods sold by Apple since October 2001, and, until two weeks ago, my answer was yes. I couldn’t understand all the fuss for an audio player exactly ”like any other“. I had the opportunity to play with an iPod mini before, which I found quite amusing, but nothing more than that.

Despite all that I ended up buying an iPod nano for myself and things immediately started to change. When I opened the box, the first impact was caused by its minuscule size: whoever thinks the mini (3.6x2x0.5 inches; 3.6 ounces) is small enough will be surprised by the sleek nano (3.5x1.6x0.27 inches; 1.5 ounce). It looks like those tiny cellphones shown in movies. By the way, the iPod nano officially took mini’s place in Apple’s product lineup.

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Figure 1: 2 GB iPod nano and earbuds.

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Figure 2: iPod nano compared to a cork.

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Figure 3: iPod nano thickness compared to a matchbox.

As soon as I had installed the iTunes software and charged the battery, I started transfering some songs. At this point, it should be noted that the nano, for now, is only available in 2 GB and 4 GB capacities. It is only a fraction of the storage offered by the standard iPod (4.1x2.4x0.43/0.55 inches;  4.8/5.5 ounces), which has just reached 60 GB, but still enough to carry up to 1,000 songs in one’s pocket (in the 4 GB model).

The difference in capacity is due to the fact that the nano uses flash memory, while the standard iPod has a hard drive. Flash brings some pros – like being more resistant to impact – and at least one big con – price – which Apple minimized striking a friendly contract with Samsung. The iPod nano’s suggested retail prices are USD 199 (2 GB) and USD 249 (4 GB) in the US.