I think this guy has an excellent point.
No one was suggesting they wanted a flash-based player over a hard drive one, and no one was complaining about the iPod mini being too wide or too heavy. In comparison to the iPod mini, the iPod nano made the battery even harder to get at, lowered its battery life, removed the “remote connector,” ditched FireWire support, weakened the device making it much more fragile, and features a scrollwheel inconsistent with that rest of the iPod lineup.
The nano is cool and all but I don’t really understand why they chose to completely replace the mini instead of just adding to the line or why someone who owned a mini would run out and replace it with a nano. I also like the mention of Motorola CEO Ed Zander’s supposed joke about his feelings for the nano.