Apple's eagerly awaited iPod Mini will ship in the UK on 24 July 2004, the Mac maker said today.

Originally scheduled to ship this past April, the iPod Mini's release outside the US was last March delayed until July. Apple's reason: all the Minis it could make were needed to satisfy demand in America. That's certainly true, but the true cause was more fundamental: Apple couldn't make enough Minis because it couldn't get enough hard drives to fill them.

The day after Apple announced the delay, Hitachi said it was doing its utmost to boost production of its 1in 4GB hard drive. Coincidence? Neither company will comment, but it's no secret that the Mini uses a 1in 4GB hard drive and - thanks to at least one user's dissection of the device - that its supplier is Hitachi. Readers report that iPod Minis are still proving hard to find in the US.

As per the US release, UK buyers will get a choice of five pastel shades: silver, gold, blue, green and pink for the £179 they'll have to lay out for the player. ®

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