Apple Inc announced yesterday the price portfolio for the new family of iPods in China and it said the newly introduced iPod Touch, with wi-fi function, will be on mainland shelves next month.

Apple's updated iPods, including iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and iPod Classic, are available in Apple-authorized stores nationwide, among them 39 in Shanghai. The star product iPod Touch will be sold after the middle of next month.

The iPod Shuffle, with one gigabyte of memory but no LCD screen, costs 728 yuan. The iPod Nano, with a two-inch screen and improved video function, starts at 1,348 yuan (for four GB and 1,798 yuan for eight GB). The iPod Classic starts at 2,298 yuan.

The iPod Touch, which features a 3.5-inch screen, YouTube access shortcut, wi-fi and finger-touch control, costs 2,698 yuan for 80GB and 3,598 yuan for 160GB.

Chinese users, however, can't purchase and download video or music directly for the iPod Touch as Apple's online store iTunes is not available in China.

Apple won't add a Chinese language typing system to the iPod Touch when it debuts in China, according to Yeo Eng Yiong, who is in charge of iPod product marketing in Asia Pacific.

Sales of the iPod Nano, the most popular model of iPod, are expected to hit 23 million units worldwide in 2007 and 27.9 million next year, according to iSuppli Corp, a US-based IT consulting firm.

(Shanghai Daily September 26, 2007)