Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. cut the price of the least-expensive iPod, the Shuffle, to $49 after sales of its media players slowed last quarter.

The price for the 1-gigabyte model is 38 percent less than the previous $79. A new version with double the storage will sell for $69, Cupertino, California-based Apple said today in a statement.

The bigger Shuffle, which clips onto clothing, can hold about 500 songs. The cheaper models may help Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs revive orders for the best-selling media player after the pace slowed to 5 percent last quarter, compared with more than 15 percent in each of the four before that.

``This makes the Shuffle more competitive in terms of a price-capacity ratio,'' NPD Group's Ross Rubin said in an interview from New York. ``While Apple had a good holiday season, the market has been slowing down somewhat.'' Before today's cut, both SanDisk Corp. and Creative Technology Ltd. sold music players with more capacity at lower prices, he said.

Apple fell $2.45, or 2 percent, to $122.18 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have declined 38 percent this year.

The Shuffles come in blue, green, silver, red and purple. The 1-gigabyte version holds about 240 songs and can play music for as long as 12 hours, according to Apple's Web site.

This month, Apple introduced pricier models of the iPod with double the storage of older versions to encourage shoppers to spend more. Apple has sold more than 140 million of the devices.

On Jan. 23, Apple shares plunged the most in more than five years after Jobs, 52, forecast that sales growth would slow to 29 percent this period from 35 percent in the prior quarter.

In June, the company introduced the iPhone, which blends the iPod with an e-mail equipped handset. Last quarter, Apple shipped 2.32 million iPhones, and Jobs plans to sell 10 million this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 19, 2008 16:10 EST