Mp3 players for Xmas
p2pnet.net News Feature:- I guess I found it funny when the first line in MPIO’s press release started with “a leading global brand of portable digital audio devices”. If the recent research by NPD is correct about how dominant the Apple iPod is in the US, it only takes a tiny slice of the market place to be among the leading. For example, in HD-based players Rio holds the number two position with 2.5% of the market and Creative Labs with 2.3%. Number one goes to the iPod with 92%. Include flash players and that number is still a very healthy 68.5% for Apple.
I guess this shows what an uphill battle the iPod competition has when they, combined, have to share only a small percentage of the market. But it is a growing market and one where everyone has their sights on taking a few percentage points back from Apple. In fact, if you combine all the marketing budgets of the myriad of contenders out there, one has to wonder how sustainable 92% of the HD-based player market is. The answer is that it isn’t and that is why most everyone is targeting it. Apple’s players are going to remain dominant for the short and medium run, but everyone is positioning for a piece of a lucrative long run.
To do this these manufacturers are coming out with a slew of products for the holidays, all looking to see which features stick with consumers. MPIO is but one of dozens of manufacturers ranging from seasoned veterans like Creative Labs to newcomers as disparate as SanDisk and Roc-A-Fella records. More important, these players do a better job of mimicking the iPod’s favorable dimesion/weight/capacity statistics, the Apple’s most desireable feature. They are also offering iPod looks and colors.
Of note, Ogg Vorbis is making some significant progress in the market as a number of manufacturers are turning to the open source codec to draw Ogg fans. Likewise Microsoft’s new rent-a song digital rights management (DRM) scheme is starting to find hardware adopters, mostly so they can at least grab Napster users who hold almost 10% of the paid download market.
Archos Gmini XS200
Archos is touting this unit as the worlds smallest 20 GB player. The numbers are pretty impressive with dimensions of 2.9 inches by 2.3 inches by 0.7 inches going against the iPod 20GB’s 4.1 by 2.4 by 0.57 inches. Selling at $250, the same price as Apple’s iPod Mini, the Gmini XS200 supports supports MP3, WMA and WAV audio files.
A key feature that Archos is promoting is the ARCLibrary, which allows users to alter file names as well as transfer tunes to different folders from within the unit.
The unit works with both Macs and PC’s and will be ship at the end of October. Our experience with past Archos players has been excellent and we expect the XS200 to be one of the stronger competitors this season.
Olympus MR 500i and MR100
Olympus enters the MP3 arena with two new iPod targeted units. The flagship player will be the Olympus 500i.This unit uses a 20GB hard drive and plays both music and photo files on its 3.7″ color VGA display. This should match up well to the “Photo iPod” that has been circulating on the rumor mill the last several days.
One of the more interesting features, the 500i has a remix-your-images mode that allows the user to create a slide show combining their pictures timed against selected music. Utilizing templates embedded in the unit users can edit photo/music sequences together right from the player’s interface. A built-in camera can be used to create musical photo montages on the spot.
Following the iPod’s all white scheme with a white/black high contrast look the MR-500i uses touch screen GUI technology as an answer to the iPod’s scroll wheel. The unit comes with a remote and plays both MP3 and WMA files.
The Olympus MR-100 targets the iPod Mini offering a 5GB drive and like the MR-500i it handles MP3 and WMA files. The MR-100 uses an electrostatic pad to navigate through song selections and offers a remote control.
Both players facilitate transfers through a USB 2.0 connection, but are limited to Windows-only devices. Windows 2000/XP are supported, but it looks like Win98 is not for those with older, but still active machines.
Creative Zen Micro
Creative’s answer to the iPod Mini and complement to the Zen Touch, which challenges the full sized iPod. Like the iPod Mini, the Zen Micro comes in ten colors and offers 5GB of capacity. The Zen Micro offers an FM radio with broadcast record capabilities and voice record capabilities. I find compelling the simple fact that the rechargeable battery is removeable.
Dimensions of the player are 2″ by 3.3″ by 0.7″ versus the Mini’s 3.6″ by 2.0″ by 0.5″. Creative claims a 12 hour battery life on the Zen Micro and offers PDA capabilities that can sync to Microsoft outlook. The unit supports MP3 and Microsoft’s WM 10 DRM files for those like their players encumbered with a digital rights management scheme (those who want to play the songs they buy on Napster will need this. Napster also charges an extra fee for tunes that an play on a portable). Interesting note on the price, the Zen Micro will retail for $280, $30 more than the iPod Mini.
Creative Muvo Micro N200
Creative is also introducing a new line of high capacity flash portables. Called the Muvo Micro N200 the units come in 256MB, 512MB and 1GB versions selling for ell for $99, $129 and $179 respectively. $179 for the 1GB model is particularly aggressive pricing. The players come in at 1.32″ by 2.58″ by .51″ and weigh just over one ounce. The unit runs on a single AAA battery and like the Zen micro supports MP3 and WM 10 files. Availablility for the new player will not be until November 26th, just a few weeks before Christmas.
Virgin Player
Another newcomer to the digital player arena is Virgin. Their first portable is the 3.1oz Virgin player, half an inch lighter than the iPod Mini’s 3.6oz. The player also offers an extra GB of space coming in at 5GB for the same $250 price tag.
The player is bundled with Virgin Digital, their iTunes competing download service that gives the player a joint portable/music service edge not enjoyed by the likes of Rio and Creative who are making units that accomodate other’s services.
The Virgin player handles the standard MP3 and WMA formats. The unit also has a built-in FM tuner and dual headphone jacks, the latter a feature meant for sharing I suppose. The Virgin Player will be available in stores by the end of October.
MPIO Goes Ogg Vorbis
The MPIO FL300, among several now claiming to be the world’s smallest and lightest MP3 player, starts it off. A simple flash unit the FL300 comes in a copper and chrome clad skin that holds either 256MB or 512MB of memory. Offering voice record capabilities the unit is powered by a litium-polymer battery and weighs under an ounce. Dimensions are 1.18″(W) x 1.96″(H) x 0.5″. Prices are $99.99 for 128MB and $129.99 for 256 MB.
The MPIO FY400 offers the high end of the flash portable market adding an FM tuner and a top end capacity of 1GB. The FY400 is powered by a AAA battery. Dimensions are 1.18″(W) x 3.14″(H) x 0.82″(D) and the unit weighs in at 1.3 oz. The FY400 has an SRP of $119.99 for 128MB, $149.99 for 256MB, and $219.99 for 1GB.
The MPIO HD300 is the new top of the line unit. Both the FY400 and the FL300 play the MP3, WMA (WM 10), and ASF formats. The HD300 adds Ogg Vorbis support to the mix, a codec that is seing greater adoption lately among digital music portables.
Selling for $279, the HD300 offers 20GB HD capacity along with an FM tuner and voice record. Additionally, MPIO HD300 comes with “Walk Office,” a suite of suite of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation graphics applications. The player comes in at 2.36″(W) x 4.09″(H) x 0.66″(D) and 5.6oz, comparable to the bigger iPod player.
The better mousetrap
Two years ago Apple built the better mousetrap. This is the core reason why the iPod became as popular as it is. But give Apple marketing credit too; with sexy silhouette commercials running on prime time TV (the first MP3 player to do so) they turned the iPod into the latest fashion statement, an accessory of cool and style.
A little of the iPod’s rise has to be credited to its competitiors too. That’s because it took two years before they mounted competing products that could, well, really compete. These post-iPod units like the first Creative Zen and the Rio Riot were very good players, but much heavier and bulkier than the iPod. Apple didn’t sit on its laurels either, evolving their player four times in those two years.
This latest crop of portables are of high interest because they have all absorbed the iPod’s more compelling advantages, while offering more features to boot. This narrows the technical difference, but there is still the marketing chasm that has developed. These days many people are using the words iPod and MP3 player interchangeably (the way most of us call all gelatine desserts by the brand name Jello regardless of who the actual food manufacturer is). Such branding is rare and coveted in the marketing word and this will make it all the harder for other players to chip away at the iPod’s dominence.
This simply means they will have to try harder, bringing new features and dynamic styling at a pace faster than usual. Personally, I think this is great news for the consumer as the evoulution of the digital music player will make signifigant advancements faster. Even if some of these portables are not not all that iPod worthy yet, future siblings will be.
Trust me, as the average life of a digital music portable is probably no more than a couple of years this is an explosive market and we should see some impressive products over the next couple of christmas’. Still, remember that iPod Killer is a marketing term, one that will become annoying and meaningless unless competitors come through with the goods.
Dell Pocket DJ 5
The new Dell DJ complements the larger Dell portable player with a unit that goes after the iPod Mini. Selling for $199, the Dell DJ comes in at $50 less than its Apple competitor, but offers 5GB of memory instead of four.
Utilizing the same Texas Instruments’ Digital Audio processor found of the the 20GB Dell portable the new unit weighs in at 4.4 ounces. That’s almost an ounce heavier than the iPod Mini that comes in at 3.6 ounces, though that’s still pretty light. We have no dimensions for the new DJ, but they should be comparable to the iPod-Mini.
Epson P-2000 PhotoViewer
This unit, due in stores this November, is being marketed as a photo viewer by Epson, which is odd because it is really much more. The P-2000 is really an MPEG-4 video/MP3 player, a pure competitor to the Archos AV series of media jukebox portables.
Possessing a 40GB hard drive, the Epson has a large 3.8 inch VGA display. That display keeps battery life short, 3 hours as reported by Epson. The unit also plays AAC music files and has a video out to watch movies on your TV screen. Epson does not indicate the unit’s size and weight in its press release. The P-2000 will accept CompactFlash and SD memory cards directly.
SanDisk Digital Audio Player
SanDisk, the maker of flash media that populates the memory of a fourth of all MP3 portables has decided to release its own player, a flash-based unit naturally.
The SanDisk Digital Audio Player will come in three flavors, offering 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB versions. The units will support standard MP3files, Windows Media file and Windows Media-based DRM file playback. This means they will be compatible with the new pay-to-rent song services the likes of Napster and MusicMatch will offer.
The tiny players also offer an FM tuner and voice record capabilities. Prices for the players will run $99.99, $149.99 and $199.99 respectively.
SanDisk Digital Audio Player
What helps set the SoniqCast Aireo 2 apart from othe 20GB iPod clones is its inclusion of 02.11b-based wireless networking, which will allow the unit to download music over Wi-Fi connection. The unit also has an FM tranmitter to allow it to be played over your car’s stereo without the need of annoying wires. FM quality is nowhere near the quality of a direct connection, but we have found that feature to be a damn convenient one nontheless.
Dimensions of the player are 2.6 by 4.1 by 0.74 inches, similar to the iPod’s 4.1 by 2.4 by 0.57 inches. The unit is a little heavier though, weighing in at 6.3 ounces. The unit plays the common MP3, WMA and WAV audio formats.
Woodi Cool
Korean manufacturer Woodi has turned to Ogg Vorbis as its secondary codec behind the MP3 standard out today. Savvy digital portable fans and gamers are very supportive of the open-source Ogg format and for good reason, it is an excellent codec. Even better, the Cool offers Linux support out of the box, a welcome feature to non-PC/Mac users.
The Cool has an unusual jacknife cover that hides the USB interface. Available in several different colors the cool also includes an FM tuner and voice record. The cool is available in 256MB and 512MB versions and is powered by a LI-Polymer Rechargable Battery
Roc Digital RocBox
Music entrepreneur Damon Dash has turned his sights on the iPod movement with his competing portable the RocBox.
Hoping to repeat the success of his Roc-A-Fella Records and Rocawear brands, Damon sees digital music as a groeth area for his business to balance the difficulties in making money in the record business alone.
The RocBox line launches in November with two chrome-colored models, a 20GB model that’ll sell for $299 and a smaller 246MB flash-based player that’ll cost $159. Both units will play MP3 and WMA files. The units will be available in CompUSA stores and marketed heavilty through Dash’s other business enterprises.
Muzio JM-600
Yet another Ogg Vorbis player to appear, the Muzio is one of the more interesting (OK ugly) shaped digital portables to appear this year. Available in 2.2GB or 4GB hard drive configurations this iPod Mini competitor also allows jpg file viewing on its 1.5 inch color screen.
Rumor has it that the next iPod’s will possess photo viewing capabilities. If that happens, the Muzio will be well-positioned with the addition of an FM tuner and of course its Ogg support. If it weren’t so damn ugly. Maby it will succeed as the Saab of the digital player set.
Rich Menta – MP3Newswire.net
October 28th, 2004 at 7:32 pm
It was annoying to try read the text with one or 2 words per line, I suggest redesigning the page.