iPod Mini. Yeah, you know already. Here's my take. Good concept, not-so-good execution.

The main problem is the price point - it's not that people won't pay $249 for a mini-iPod (they clearly will, since iPod's were sold out everywhere this Christmas), it's simply that the cheapest iPod sells for $299. So I think very few people won't pay an extra $50 for a hugely superior product.

I think the colors are off too - there's a disturbing lack of coherence with the rest of Apple's identity.

What I like: new features, like games, calendar, contacts, etc.

That said, this will be a strong seller. Why? Because it effectively has no competition. I find this absolutely unbelievable. But it's true: my kid sister wanted one for Christmas, and I fast discovered that all of the so-called substitutes are far from it - they're hugely inferior in product architecture (Archos), design (Rio) specs (Rio, C-Lab).

Why do these guys have to try and be smarter than Apple? Why don't they just rip off the iPod, lock, stock and barrel, with lower quality parts, and sell it $50-100 cheaper? Because they don't have a coherent strategy - and Apple does. What am I talking about? When (once in while) Jobs says meaningful things like this:

"ILife '04 is like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life"

Is a pretty good way to sum up a strategy.