I am controlled by the nanobots...

Well, Apple has released their new stuff - the iPod Nano and the Rockr phone.

The Rockr? Supposedly this fills a need. I'm not sure what, though - not a need I have. I guess if you are the kind of person who always carries their phone, and wants to keep a few songs on it in case you find yourself in, say, a long line at the MVA, maybe it will come in handy.

But I'm the opposite way. When I'm using my MP3 player, I DON'T want a cell phone with me, and I don't have my cell with me. I have a 1-gig iPod shuffle and a 10 gig firewire ipod that I haven't really used since getting the shuffle. I use the shuffle primarily at the gym. I like the fact that it's durable, that it doesn't skip, that it's light, that it's cheap enough that I can leave it in my car or my gym bag without really worrying about. Mostly I like that it's small enough that I can leave it in my pocket and work out without it mattering.

I will occasionally use the shuffle in the car or around the house while doing dishes or laundry, but for the most part it lives in my gym bag. Using a cell phone in any of those situations doesn't make sense - cell phones are the opposite of the shuffle, they are big, bulky, and easily broken.

The iPod Nano looks cool, but the Rockr (whose name makes me thing "teh r0xx0r!"), I don't get it's place in the market. It replaces the iPod mini, a product that seems to exist mostly so they could sell pink iPods to the ladies. I like the fact that it uses flash memory, it looks like it has a nice color display, and it just looks damn cool, especially in black. But I don't understand why anyone would buy one except for the fact that it looks cool - if you want a cheap, set it and forget it MP3 player, the shuffle seems like a better choice - I can't help thinking how scratched that display is going to get after spending time in my gym bag or pocket (sure, you can wrap it in one of those screen-protecting cases, but that also makes it bulky and less cool-looking). As far as storage space, it's bigger than a shuffle, but for not-much-more ($100 difference between a 2 gig and a 20 gig), you could buy a full-sized iPod - which is bigger, but with a bigger display and stores 10x more music.

I guess the nano fills the slot for people who want a flash MP3 player, but still want a display and some extra room. I'm curious how big that market is, though.