[Antonio]

I think it is clear reading the posts here and on other forums that most of the Mac communityi feel Apple has overcharged for the iPod mini.
Silly really, as I am sure they could have got the extra $50 from customers other ways - like selling them songs perhaps?
Even at 10c profit per song for Apple, they only needed to sell 500 songs to get their $50.
Solution: each iPod mini sale gets you a free $50 iTMS gift certificate.

[d00d]

I'm sorry but isn't the way capitalism works, don't buy something if you think it's overly expensive? And where did you get $50 extra? Why not $100? Hell, why not say Apple should have charged $50 total for the things? I think Apple chose the best price point in their interest. Besides, you should look up some interviews, Steve Jobs has made it clear that they don't make much, if any, money on the iTunes Music Store. They use it to entice people to spend other money on Mac computers and iPods, which is their real profit center.

[pdrayton]

Why would Apple want to give away iTunes gift certificates with iPod mini sales when it will be giving away 100 million free songs with Pepsi beginning February 1? Do the math... there are 2 million iPods out there right now... Apple will be giving away $100 Million in music downloads... that's $50 per iPod user. And you want ANOTHER $50?!?!?!?
I realize that iPod users aren't the only ones who will be buying Pepsi over the next couple of months... but thought it was interesting to see the value of what iTunes will be giving away.
I think many Mac fanatics are overlooking the fact that due to the Pepsi promotion iTunes will soon be seeing phenomenal music downloads from PC users who still have not used iTunes, and of those, the ones who want something small & cool will buy iPod minis.
I also think that it's very generous of Apple to revisit its European pricing of the iPod mini in light of the overvalued Pound & Euro.

[yodaphile]

It's not a crazy idea to suggest having a promotion giving a iTMS gift certificate with every new iPod. It's probably something we'll see down the road. $50 might be a little too generous. But a little incentive to try out the music store (a la the pepsi campaign) is a great way to get iPod owners who use iTunes to get comfortable with the store. I wouldn't be surprised to see a $10 iTMS GC w/new iPod promotion later when competition increases.
These are the kinds of things they'll have to do to bring new customers into the fold sometimes...

[pdrayton]

A gift certificate promotion doesn't make sense when a company like Pepsi is willing to pay Apple to give away iTunes downloads. Pepsi benefits by increasing sales of high profit-margin soft drinks. Apple benefits from Pepsi drinkers who "need" to buy an iPod (again, high profit margin) on which to play the downloads Pepsi gave them.
If Apple didn't have a Pepsi-type promotion that could be done, and its iPod sales needed boosting, it still wouldn't make sense to do an iTunes Gift Certificate promotion as iTunes downloads have an extraordinarly high cost for Apple.
Staying in Business 101 dictates that you minimize the cost of obtaining incremental business.
I bet Apple will eventually lower the price for iPod minis, but I doubt you'll see a price lower than $219. Any additional discount would make sense only if funded by another company in a marketing promotion.