Apple Replaces the iPod Mini With the iPod Nano

Apple made the iPod smaller today, and the change is big enough to retire one of its most recognizable models.

The company introduced the iPod nano in San Francisco, replacing the iPod mini with a flash-based music player that Apple says holds up to 1,000 songs while coming in thinner than a standard No. 2 pencil. The new player is available immediately in white or black, with a 4GB model priced at $249 and a 2GB model priced at $199.

For students who already recognize white earbuds as part of the school-year uniform, the nano looks designed to disappear into daily life. Apple says the device weighs 1.5 ounces, uses the familiar Click Wheel, includes a color screen, and can also hold photos. That means the new iPod is not just smaller; it keeps the core features that made the larger models easy to use between classes, in cars and on weekend trips.

Steve Jobs framed the announcement as more than a product refresh. Apple’s release quotes him calling the nano the biggest revolution since the original iPod, a line that makes clear how much the company wants the smaller model to reset expectations for portable music players. The mini helped make the iPod colorful and approachable. The nano makes the same category feel thinner, lighter and more pocketable.

The school impact is easy to imagine. A device that fits into the smallest pocket changes how often it can be carried. Students can bring hundreds of songs to the bus, the gym, the cafeteria or a friend’s house without lugging around a CD wallet. The 1,000-song number matters because it makes the player feel less like a gadget for a few albums and more like a personal soundtrack.

Apple is also selling accessories built around the device’s size and style, including lanyard headphones, armbands and colored tubes. That turns the nano into something visible, not hidden: a small music player that can hang around the neck or show up in a color case.

For the class of 2007, the iPod era was already underway. Today’s nano makes it easier to carry that era everywhere.