If you or your kids felt left out of the iPod revolution because the tiny digital music players - one of the Christmas season's hottest gifts - had very big prices, Apple has an answer for you and your aching wallet: the iPod Shuffle.
The new device, which is little bigger and weighs less than a pack of gum, costs from around €90.
The Shuffle does just that - the stripped-down player holds up to 240 songs, more than double the capacity of similarly-priced players but less than the thousands stored by pricier iPod models, and it shuffles the order in which they are played.
If you want to lighten your wallet some more, Apple makes four optional accessories for the Shuffle, from an armband to a see-through protective "sport case" that lets you wear the Shuffle as a necklace.
An Apple spokeswoman said the player is aimed at a younger audience who can't afford a regular iPod, as well as cautious people who are new to digital music players but fret that the digital world has been moving on without them.
However, the Shuffle is not the only new product from Apple that is tiny and modestly priced. Apple chief executive Mr Steve Jobsis also going after what he hopes will be a new wave of Apple Macintosh computer users by introducing a phenomenally small computer at a low price.
Apple now has less than 5 per cent of the home computer market and needs converts. Going by its new Mac Mini, also announced by Mr Jobs, the company hopes cool design and low price will be the combination that gets them. The Mac Mini, only 6.5 inches square by 2 inches deep and weighing 2.9 lbs, is now one of the cheapest computers on the market at $499 (or €619 including VAT).
The only problem is the new Mac comes without keyboard, mouse or monitor. It is, as Mr Jobs said, "BYOKMD - bring your own keyboard, mouse and display". But the missing bits are actually the whole point of the Mac Mini - the idea is that people who currently have a Microsoft Windows-based PC with the "KBD" will simply unplug the main computer box - the CPU, or central processing unit - and plug in the Mac Mini.
Apple, which has its European manufacturing headquarters in Cork, is well known for making computers with cutting-edge design and features. But equally, it is known for products that often carry premium prices.
"We want to price this Mac so that people who are thinking of switching have no more excuses," said Mr Jobs.
What he didn't say is that the company clearly hopes to convert some of the large portion of the 10 million iPod owners in the world who don't use Macs to his company's computers, too. Observers say it is no surprise that the company has called the new computer the Mac Mini, which echoes the name of its iPod Mini music player.
iPods far outsell Mac computers. Some 4,500,000 iPods flew out of the shops in the past three months, four times more than Macs.
If Apple can persuade just some of those iPod users to switch to Mac, it will mean big profits for Apple.
