In what pundits have called both a revolutionary move and an attempt to grab more of the digital music player market share, Apple Computers, Inc., recently released the latest in their popular iPod family.

Weighing less than an ounce, the new iPod Shuffle is the smallest and lightest in the iPod group. It is less than one-third of an inch in width and stands shorter than a standard pack of chewing gum. It is offered in two models: a 512 MB model that holds about 120 songs and a 1 GB model that holds about 240 songs. Both feature a built in USB connector for transferring songs and recharging.

At $99 for the 512 MB iPod Shuffle and $149 for the 1 GB model, they are also the most inexpensive iPods ever.

The most contentious feature of the new iPod is its lack of a LCD display. Instead of scrolling through a display of songs, the new iPod offers two playback modes. One mode offers straight play-through of a pre-existing playlist, the other shuffles the order of that playlist. Forward and back buttons allow users to move through the list.

Critics contend that the inability of the iPod Shuffle to accurately move through playlists will be its downfall. They cite the popularity of the standard iPods as being indicative of the desire to have full control over playback.

Apple counters that most users of the smaller, flash memory-based players often use them to simply cycle through playlists or set their players to ‘random.’ The small and affordable iPod Shuffle looks to grab some of the market share dominated by players by Creative and Rio. At $99, the iPod Shuffle is cheaper per megabyte than any other player on the market.

Critics may be missing the market that Apple is attempting to capture. Most of the inexpensive flash-based players are targeted to athletes and those who live active lives. The larger, bulkier iPods are unsuited for use by these consumers owing to their reliance on internal hard disks, drives that can skip or be damaged by sudden drops and physical shock. Flash-based players are immune to this problem.

Apple’s popular iTunes has added new features to help users manage songs and become accustomed to using their iPod Shuffle. Autofill creates a running list of designated songs that can be easily transferred to the iPod Shuffle. If Autofill exceeds the storage capacity of the iPod, a subset of the songs is randomly selected. iTunes now also includes a method to automatically convert large files to more manageable 128kbps AAC files.

Whether or not the iPod Shuffle will help Apple to consolidate its market share or serve to spur fiercer competition remains to be seen. In the meantime, Apple continues to offer great value in small packages, extending their brand and offering consumers innovative products.

The iPod Shuffle can be found in stores nationwide or on the Apple Store online at www.apple.com/store.