The world's smallest mp3 players

In a recent survey of female Japanese tech consumers, they ranked the size of a gadget the most important thing they look for when buying a new gizmo.

Now, I’d never thought that Japanese girls and myself had that much in common — and in many ways, that’s still the case. However, I too love tiny gadgets.

The smaller the better really, I don’t care if it’s easier to lose or break, I don’t care if I have to operate it with a pin — I love miniscule hardware, especially little mp3 players. Now we’ve all got our day-to-day high capacity PMPs, whether it’s an iPhone or Zune or whatever, but sometimes it’s nice to have a back-up — a neat little mp3 player that’s lightweight and doesn’t sit there sagging in your pocket like a jar of pickled onions.

They’re ideal if you’re going jogging or travelling, and with that in mind here are nine of the smallest, and where possible, where to buy them.