OWNERS of the new iPod Nano — which is selling at the rate of five a minute in one High Street chain of stores — have complained to Apple after finding problems with the portable music player’s screen.

The sleek, £179 back-pocket player, which can hold 1,000 songs, has almost sold out after a nationwide advertising campaign.

But Apple’s store in Regent Street, London, has received complaints that the colour screen scratches too easily.

And a website, www.flawedmusicplayer.com, has already been created by disgruntled purchasers urging Apple to recall the product, citing inexplicable cases of screens cracking.

One customer wrote on the website: “After running with the nano twice and being very careful as to keep it safe, the nano shut off. I reset it but nothing happened, the screen just showed an off white. The music still plays and the click wheel still clicks — it’s as if the screen is not connected to the rest of the iPod.”

Another said: “Last night I broke my iPod while it was simply sitting in my pocket. I was destroyed over it.”

He wrote: “The iPod was in my pocket on the way to work, and when I took it out to show it to all my friends, the LCD was cracked. In my pocket (I wear really baggy clothes) it had somehow met up with the headphones (which were made of metal) and cracked the screen . . .

“I called Apple to see what could be done to fix it. They . . . told me I’d be better off buying a new one, instead of sending it in.”

The screen is designed to display photos and album covers but can become distorted by scratches if the Nano is secreted in your keys-and-change pocket, buyers say.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, demonstrated at the launch of the nano that the player was specifically designed to be placed in a jeans pocket.

Apple claims that its award-winning design team have produced a screen made of the toughest polycarbonate but stores will examine requests for returns of damaged players.

Dixons has been selling the new iPod, which weighs just 42g, at the rate of five a minute after a blanket television and print advertising campaign drumming home the “impossibly small” tagline.

Gadgets and games are expected to give retailers a Christmas boost with Sony’s Play- Station Portable console already selling strongly. The new £90 Nintendo DS console, which features dual screens and can be connected wirelessly to 16 other consoles, is likely to be another favourite.

Microsoft re-enters the fray with the XBox 360 due for a December 2 release. The £280 console is compatible with digital music players and high-definition televisions and promises to be a “dramatic leap forward in the gaming and entertainment experience”.

Big-selling film tie-in games to feed the machines this Christmas will include Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and The Chronicles Of Narnia — The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe. There will also be a new market in blockbuster Hollywood DVDs designed to be played through the PlayStation Portable.

After numerous false starts, this Christmas is predicted to see a breakthrough for affordable 3G mobile phones with Sony Ericsson challenging the iPod with a range of Walkman handsets that can hold more than 100 songs.

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