I was on leave when Apple unveiled the new iPod Nano on Sept 9. It was only two days later in Melbourne that I managed to check the Web to see the latest Apple gizmos.

Wow! The iPod Nano is a beaut. The colours it came in – green, pink, orange, blue, silver – looked brilliant. What caught my attention was the pedometer. That would be cool since it could replace my Polar heart rate monitor when I'm travelling.

At an Apple store in downtown Melbourne, I wasn't disappointed with the new Nano. It is slim and will fit nicely in the small pocket of pair of running shorts. In addition to being an MP3 player, it is also a video camera, a pedometer and a radio.

A radio in an iPod? That sounds odd. This is the first iPod from Apple that has a radio tuner built in.

Apple has tried its best to shield users from radio ads, endless DJ chattering and music you don't like since it unveiled its first iPods in October 2001.

However, companies like Creative Technology, Diamond and Samsung had always offered radio tuners in their MP3 players. I recall the sharp remarks these companies made about the iPods: "Who would want to listen to only canned music when you can listen to fresh music played on radio?"

I remember how on many occasions, Creative Technology which was fighting with Apple for dominance of the MP3 player market, would claim that its Nomad MP3 players were superior in engineering quality and that no one would buy a digital music player without a radio.

Creative was Apple's biggest competitor then because it launched the first MP3 player in the world at the end of 1999. Apple made a stupid move by not offering radio on the iPod, it said. Moreover, my friends also complained that they can’t listen to news when they use the iPod.

Ten years later Creative still sells digital music players but it does not dominate the MP3 market while Apple has gone on to grab more than half the global market.

At heart, Creative is an engineering company that believes that every gadget should be stuffed with all sorts of features. In its eyes, this is giving customers value for money. Customers reciprocated by buying millions of these devices.

For Apple, it's about fit for use. Find out what customers need and match it accordingly with feature offerings. Don't fill gadgets with too many features that people don’t understand and won’t use.

So in my view, the radio in the new Nano fits the market segment Apple is targeting: the outdoor and active person. The Nano slips into any pair of gym shorts or it can be worn on an armband. Together with the Pedometer function (it measures the number of steps you take), perfect for the jogger, gym rat or exercise fanatic who wants to know the intensity of his workout.

Predicting consumer behaviour is an art rather than a science. Was Creative right that radio is a must-have feature in iPods or was it ahead of its time? Let me know your thoughts.

chngkeg@sph.com.sg