APPLE'S GOLD IPOD MINI has run out of juice.
As the makers of the world's best-selling digital music players announced a revamp of its famously vibrant "mini" range, the gold option was conspicuous by its absence.
Happier times
|
Pink, blue, green and silver - the four other options - all made it through to stage two of iPod Mini's development. But gold is destined only to survive in the collective memory of eBay listings.
At the device's launch, the brand's disciples swarmed around any shop rumoured to be stocking the gadget.
Actress Melanie Griffith was near the head of the pack, said to have been hunting a pink version. But that looked positively restrained compared to die-hard Apple-ites who, allegedly, were buying up one of each colour - mindful, perhaps, of the need to accessorise.
Invoking his bling credentials, Apple chief Steve Jobs noted that Gold iPod Mini would push all the right buttons among the "hip hop crowd".
But alas, it seems this was not enough.
Friends of Gold iPod Mini might have foreseen its fate if they took a scoot around Amazon, which ranks stock in terms of sales. The silver iPod has consistently come out on top, followed by pink, blue, and green. Gold languished in last position.
The move to scrub gold from Apple's playlist runs contrary to the fortunes of the commodity itself, the price of which has risen almost 50% in five years, and is tipped to rise further this year.
Apple however, has chosen to accentuate the positive, saying it is choosing to "focus on the four colours" with its new iPod Minis.
No flowers.
Here are a selection of your tributes
Blung.
Alex Knibb, UK
4 Gold Gigabytes the Dust ...
Charles Frean, Bedford, Massachusetts
The Mr Ts of this world will miss you!
George, UK
There was a gold one?
Adam, Oxfordshire
Shuffle Off Mortal Coil
Michael Hall, Eccles, UK
RiPod.
Mike, Switzerland
You were once Going For Gold but you ended up just going.
Marshall Matthews, UK
Gold? Old.
Tom Kermode, London, UK
Silence is Golden.
Mike Edmunds, UK
Gold...dust
Amar, UK