Philips Intros New Digital Music Players
Philips added two new players to its digital music lineup on Thursday, boasting more capacity, PlaysForSure compatibility and color screens to allow users to store and view JPEG photos.
The GoGear HDD1630 and HDD6330 will have 6GB and 30GB capacities. For navigation, both feature backlit touchpads as well as Philips SuperScroll technology that allows a user to quickly navigate through their song collection.
For photos, the players will feature similar navigation with the capability to view images one at a time, several as thumbnails, or view them in a slideshow that can be set to music.
The new players will also include an FM tuner and voice recorder. Philips claims the batteries in the units will last anywhere from 15 to 18 hours, and can charge up to 70 percent of their capacities in just one hour.
With PlaysForSure compatibility, Philips players will be compatible with any store that sells protected content in Windows Media Format. It also will have the capability to be used with subscription content available from services like Napster To Go and Yahoo! Music Unlimited.
Philips joins an already rather crowded market of digital music players looking to serve the subscription music market. iRiver, Creative, Dell, Gateway and several others already produce players with PlaysForSure, or Janus, compatibility.
However, none of these companies have been able to chip away at Apple's dominance. The largest of them -- iRiver -- only carries a five percent market share.
The GoGear HDD1630 and HDD6330 will be available in October with suggested retail prices of $199 and $299 USD.