Apple Computer's latest flash memorybased MP3 player iPod nano hit the store shelves in Korea last month and is proving to be a popular choice among the nation's tech-savvy youngsters. The Korean branch of the world's biggest portable digital jukebox vendor held a pre-launch promotion for the iPod nano, an ultra slim full-featured iPod that is thinner than a pencil, at the Zero One Design Institute in northern Seoul. Apple Computer Korea had set up a one-day iPod nano Gallery at the Zero One Design Institute, exhibiting dozens of iPod nano, providing young fashion-conscious consumers with the opportunity to get their hands on the sleek 42-gram gizmo. The iPod nano is available as either a 4- gigabyte model priced at just 290,000 won or a 2-gigabyte model priced at 230,000 won. Apple is offering the new iPod nanos at much lower prices than those of rival products with similar storage capacities and configurations, increasing pressure on smaller Korean rivals to squeeze their profit margins. Apart from the first flash model iPod shuffle that had no liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, iPod nano features a color screen, the company's patent pending Click Wheel, which enables complete onehanded navigation, and the memory capacity to hold 1,000 songs or 25,000 digital photos for the 2-gigabyte model. However, the new iPod still does not support an FM tuner and digital music file formats other than MP3. The most fashionable and wearable iPod ever, the iPod nano features optional accessories including lanyard headphones, which integrate with the headphone cables so users can wear their iPod nano around their necks without dangling headphone cables. For customers looking to personalize their iPod nano with colors, an optional set of iPod nano Tubes in pink, purple, blue, green and clear offers fashionable protection in a sheer casing while enabling full operation of all functions including the Click Wheel. Optional armbands, available in gray, pink, blue, red and green, allow users to wear their iPod nano as the ultimate fashion and sports accessory. Apple declined to comment on its plans to launch an iTunes Web music download service in Korea: the company is providing the iTunes service in 20 countries and Japan is the only Asian country in which the service is currently available. Earlier this month, Samsung Electronics semiconductor operation president Hwang Chang-gyu disclosed an episode behind Apple's adoption of flash memory as the storage device of its MP3 players, replacing hard disk drives (HDDs). Hwang said that Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed absolutely no interest in employing flash memory to its portable jukeboxes until early last year. Hwang said Samsung has educated Jobs on the power of innovative flash memory chips, which provide heightened data storage stability compared to HDDs, persuading him to switch the mainstream storage device of its MP3 player products to flash. Apple's iPod nano employs Samsung's NAND flash memory. Apple currently controls a 74 percent market share in the U.S., the world's single largest MP3 player market, but its slice in the flash-based segment of the global MP3 player market remains petty compared with that of Korean vendors such as ReignCom.