RSSDisney Launches MP3 Player Lineup
By Ed Oswald | Published September 29, 2005, 3:09 PM
Disney on Thursday unveiled its own MP3 player called the Mix Stick that it hopes would appeal to younger children who are increasingly turning to electronic toys over the traditional dolls and toy trucks. The company also is betting on its $49 retail price as a way to entice parents who may not be willing to spend $99 on an iPod Shuffle.
Mix Sticks will come in four different designs -- Disney Chrome, Forever Princess, Sassy Pixie and That's So Raven -- and are built for children age 6 to 12. However, from the characters selected for the designs, it appears Disney is attempting to target young girls.
Disney's Mix Stick will work much like a traditional MP3 player in the way that a user transfers music purchased from the Internet or copies songs from a CD. In addition, a child could also play music by inserting a pre-filled memory card that Disney is calling "Mix Clips."
About the size of a postage stamp, the Mix Clip card would be able to hold approximately one CD worth of music. Initially, Disney will release four different titles including songs from Hillary Duff and James Brown, as well as music featured in the company’s television shows.
On its own, the Mix Sticks hold up to 60 songs with a 128MB capacity. The player also supports Microsoft's Windows Media format. Disney representatives say the devices will be available in retail locations such as Target and Wal-Mart, and at clothing retailer Limited Too.
Customers would have the option to expand the memory to 1GB through a memory card.
Even though MP3 players may not be Disney's core business, Jupiter Research vice president and senior analyst David Card said the players should be successful.
"Disney's done branded CD and DVD players before, and Mix Clips aren't too original -- although ultra-small kid-targeted music formats are usually clips-only, and sold as keychains," Card said. "At $49, it's priced to move."
What remains to be seen, however, is if in the eyes of kids the Mix Stick will be an acceptable alternative to the trendy -- and more expensive -- iPod.
nice ! i thought that dsney was out of picture but they surely have found the right target! i am sure it will succeed
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I want to correct a few of the things Jupiter Research has said about Disney's Electronics business both here and elsewhere. Contrary to some of their comments, Disney has meaningful share of kids' electronics purchases, particularly in small screen TV and single-disc DVD. As reported in the consumer electronics trade publication, TWICE (http://www.twice.com/article/CA609350.html), we are poised to deliver 100% wholesale sales growth this year and have extremely broad US distribution in retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Toys 'R Us, Circuit City, Sears, K-Mart, Limited Too, and The Home Depot. We would not have such broad support from retailers or continue to expand our business so rapidly if our products were not successful.
With respect to Mix Clips, it is true that the notion of "ultra-small kid-targeted music formats" is not new. Hasbro's Hit Clips line, which offered 30 seconds of AM quality music on a cartridge, was massively successful with this approach years ago. What we are doing differently is that we are offering full albums and full lengths songs at near-CD quality and at the same price that kids expect to pay for a CD.
It was not our goal to be original for originality’s sake. Rather, we wanted to take a model that we know works well with kids and use real consumer electronics technology to deliver a no-compromises solution that let's kids join the digital music revolution because it is so easy-to-use and based on industry standard – rather than “original” and proprietary – components and technologies.
We don't know of any other company offering a complete solution for kids like Disney Mix Sticks and Mix Clips today.
Chris Heatherly
VP, Disney Electronics
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oops, sorry, it ships in 5 weeks
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@ ladyhawk: it's available already, according to the Disney Store website: http://disneyshopping.go...6&Product_Id=188967
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This is cool. That Chrome one is lookin' good to me! :)
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Do they have to put THAT GOD-DAMNED MOUSE ON EVERYTHING?
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"THAT GOD-DAMNED MOUSE" has a name you know! Respect Mickey!
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These are sooooooooo cool. When are a available to purchase?
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My husband can keep his ipod, this is perfect for me and I'm an adult...how cool is the tinkerbell one? This rocks!
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These are HOT! I'm going to buy every model!
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Ooh...an Ipod built specifically for my Disney "princess" tunes.
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Why a kid needs a $200 iPod Nano or even $99 Shuffle is beyond me. I think this is a really good idea, espcially for the many girl Disney fans out there. Most kids don't have large collections of music anyway. Looks like a good idea for Disney to me.
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This does sound very intersting. Hope this takes a bit out of apple.
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only if comes preinstalled the long version of "its a small world after all" .
with a 14 hr battery I will never stop that song.
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