iPod mini

The iPod mini cost $249 and contained 4GB of memory - enough for around a thousand songs, in an anodised aluminium body sold in silver, gold, pink, blue and green. Apple put it at roughly half the size of the full-size iPod and smaller than most mobile phones of the day, weighing 3.6 ounces.

The click wheel was introduced on the iPod mini. Apple put the four navigation buttons underneath the scrolling surface itself, so pressing the edges of the wheel worked the controls and nothing more was needed on the front. The full-size iPod did not get it until that July.

A full-size iPod cost $299 with 15GB at the time, so fifty dollars more than the mini bought nearly four times the storage.

Demand in America ran so far ahead of supply that Apple postponed the launch everywhere else. In March 2004 it announced that worldwide availability was moving to July, with Tim Cook saying US demand had already exceeded everything the company could make before the end of June.

It was announced on 6 January 2004 at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. There were no pre-orders, and Apple said only that it would reach American shops in February, priced from $249.