Apple Inc launched its new iPod family in China yesterday, including the iPod Shuffle and the WiFi-featured iPod Touch - the first iPod to feature a handwritten Chinese language input system.

The new products also include the redesigned slim-sized iPod Nano model - the thinnest iPod Apple has ever made. The Nano, with nine optional colors, comes in two models - an eight-gigabyte model that can hold 2,000 songs that costs 1,298 yuan (US$130), and a 16-gigabyte model that costs 1,798 yuan.

The iPod Shuffle, Apple's entry-level music player, sells from 398 yuan for the 1GB memory version in China.

MP3 players costing below 400 yuan had snapped up more than a 40 percent share of the market by the middle of this year, according to the Beijing-based research firm CCID.

China's MP3 device sales totaled 2.5 million units in the first six months, a drop of 43.76 percent, CCID said.

"Apple and Samsung products occupied most market share by revenue in China as they provide fashion design and customized functions," said Li Ying, a consumer electronics analyst at CCID, which is authorized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Apple has sold 160 million iPods since their introduction in 2001, making them the runaway leader in sales of portable music players.

Apple said a highlight of the new models was the "genius" feature, which helped users automatically create a new play list of similar songs from the user's own library.

Apple has also added a GPS function, accessories for recording, and handwriting Chinese language input functions which were only previously available on iPhone into their flagship iPod, the iPod Touch. The models sell from 1,998 yuan, for 8GB memory, to 3,498 yuan for 32GB memory.

In the software sector, about 2,600 applications are available in Apple China's App Store. Of those 600 are free. The application number is close to the level in the United States which has more than 3,000 applications. However, some of those were designed for iPhone, which is not available in China.

(Shanghai Daily September 25, 2008)