Coming very soon, the mini iPod

It was the must-have Christmas gift which put a large dent in many festive budgets.

But parents who forked out up to £400 for Apple's iPod - a mobile digital jukebox - will be surprised to learn that a bargain-priced mini-version is set to be unveiled only next week.

The smaller iPod will cost less than a quarter as much as the cheapest current version, which can store 2,500 music tracks.

But it will still be able to hold 800 songs, which users can download from music websites or transfer from their CD collections.

Current versions of the iPod have been on sale from around £250 to £400 for the top-of-the-range model, which can hold 10,000 songs.

Now industry analysts expect Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs to unveil the smaller iPods at the Macworld event in San Francisco next week.

In addition to the mini-iPods, expected to cost £63, Apple will introduce different coloured cases from the standard white design.

The iPod's popularity has been boosted by its appearance as the ultimate celebrity gadget. A-list owners include the Beckhams, Robbie Williams, Ronan Keating and David Bowie.

As a result, it has been a runaway success throughout the world, with sales topping the million mark.

Many UK stores ran out of stocks as demand grew during the Christmas rush. Some resorted to taking orders for the post-Christmas period, even though Apple said it was working flat out to meet demand and had shipped more than

1.3million of the gadgets by October 2003.

Apple senior vice-president Ron Johnson said an iPod was being sold somewhere in the world every ten minutes in the run-up to Christmas. The iPod, which can also store photographs and other types of file, has had a good year in 2003, with two top technology magazines voting it one of the country's favourite bits of consumer technology.

In a recent Stuff magazine poll, the iPod was voted best gadget of the year.