Apple launches mini iPod

Days after more than a million people paid up to £400 for the most popular hi-tech toy of Christmas, the iPod, manufacturer Apple has announced a cut-price mini version.

The iPod, a digital jukebox which can hold up to 10,000 songs, has been a worldwide hit in the past two months after Apple produced a version compatible with Windows computers.

But now Apple is set to release a smaller version, costing £65, which will be able to store 800 songs.

Apple chief Steve Jobs is expected to unveil the cheaper iPod at a San Francisco exhibition next week.

It is intended to target people who want a digital music player but do not need one which can hold music from more CDs then most people could ever own.

Up to 1.3million people bought the iPod for Christmas, including a host of celebrities such as the Beckhams, Ronan Keating and Robbie Williams.

It weighs less than two compact discs and, as well as storing music, holds digital camera images and can be used as a dictation machine and alarm clock. Music is loaded on to the device from an Apple computer or a PC.

High-street chains such as John Lewis said the demand for the iPod was outstripping supply. Many stores had to take post-Christmas orders from frustrated shoppers.

In addition to the lowercost version of its digital jukebox, Apple will introduce different coloured cases for the currently allwhite iPod. Dedicated iPod cases have been designed by Pucci and Christian Dior.