There’s a whole bunch of back-and-forth going on in respect to the thoughts and opinions on the iPod mini. Some say it’s smaller (in physical size and disk space) so it’s not worth the price, other say it’s smaller (in physical size) and is worth the price.
Look at Apple’s Powerbook line. There’s a 12″, a 15″, and a 17″ PowerBook. Ask people which one they have, or would like to have, and you’ll get varying responses. And guess what? They come with different size hard drives, 40, 60, 80 gig, respectively. Oh sure, you can get a 12″ and put an 80 gig drive in it, which is something you can’t do with an iPod. Yet…
Digital audio players are a fairly new technology, and Apple is definitely helping define where they might be headed, but it’s no surprise than an Apple product might have a premium price. These things will all play out in time. If $249 for 4 gig is not appealing, then what is? $200 for 2 gig? $100 for 1 gig? And at what physical size? Personally, if I could get an iPod for “around” $100 that held “about” 1 gig, and was “roughly” the size of the original iPod, that would be ideal to me. What is a good price/size/capacity ratio will be different for different people. Apple can’t build/sell what would be ideal to everyone, no company can. (At least at an affordable price.) And yes, I’d pay a bit more for an Apple product because I trust the name, respect a well designed UI, and would expect it to work properly with what I currently use.
(In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy my Car MP3 Player.)