RSSSanDisk Debuts 8GB Flash MP3 Player
By Ed Oswald | Published August 21, 2006, 12:24 PM
SanDisk on Monday launched the largest flash-based MP3 player on the market, an 8GB version of its e2xx model player. At $249 USD, it is the same price as the largest iPod nano, yet twice the capacity. In addition, SanDisk lowered the price of its smaller capacity players to make them price competitive to the nano.
Low prices from SanDisk have catapulted the company more known for its flash card memory products to second place in U.S. MP3 player sales. Although it's 9.7 percent market share in the second quarter was far behind Apple's 75.6 percent share, it was still nearly twice that of its nearest competitor, Creative.
With the price cuts, the 2GB Sansa e250 would sell for $139 USD, $60 less than the 2GB iPod nano. The 4GB Sansa e260 will sell for $179 USD. Even the Sansa e270, a 6GB model, would be $30 less than the 4GB nano at $219 USD.
Since SanDisk produces flash memory itself, the company says it is in a unique position to offer the savings to the consumer. "The most costly ingredient in a flash-based MP3 player is the flash memory," SanDisk marketing director Eric Bone said.
The entire e2xx line is PlaysForSure compatible, and supports MP3 and Windows Media formats. Also included is a microSD expansion slot, photo and video capabilities, FM tuner with recording capabilities, voice recording, and a 1.8-inch color TFT display.
The Sansa measures 1.7 inches wide by 3.5 inches long, and a half inch thick, slightly larger and thicker than Apple's iPod nano.
Holy...
Now Microsoft, take a lesson from this. Sandisk didn't overhype the product 4 years before it saw the light of day. They just released it. The hype will surely follow now as soon as people see how awesome it is.
That looks darn nice. I wonder if the iPod execs just got a little nervous.
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I just bought my wife one of these - I'm damn impressed with it. A great unit, great price.
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Sandisk pwn3d Apple.
The display of the sandisk player looks 100x better than the ipod nano going by the above image. Does this come with the same proprietary battery as the ipod series? Because if it does, then i'll reconsider. I rather have a battery i could easily replace.
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I bought an ipod nano because I needed to be able to listen to audio books, many of the mp3 players don't support them. Sandisk e140 does but it appears not this model or any 200 series
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Convert the audio books to mp3 or wave format and you would be able to listen to them in practically any recent mp3 player on the market.
maybe those audio book files are in apple format if they can only be played on your ipod nano.
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One thing these mp3 are missing is a camera, I would really like to have an mp3 player that can snap pictures or even take short clips. That would really be cool since they hold over 4 GB.
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pda can do all those things. or get a mp3 phone. which the both the sound and picture quality are poor.
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When a portable flash player and recorder comes out for about $200 with a mic and line input and sensitivity control that records to FLAC or at least WAV then I'll get a portable device. Until the newest Hi-MD comes down in price, I doubt it will happen.
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iAudio X5.
Enjoy! :)
http://www.zipzoomfly.co...00&prodlist=froogle
MP3, OGG, WMA, ASF, FLAC, WAV, MPEG4* (video) playback, FM Radio Receiver and Recording, Voice Recording, Line-In Recording
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Or if you'd rather have more space, like as in 60gb you can get this one:
iAudio X5 60gb at newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/Pr...sp?Item=N82E16855603828
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Best bang for your buck. Now it comes down to loyalty with Apple or the other guy. Are you going to buy "trendy" or "smarty" hardware? Personaly, I like my ipod, and I like my MacBook. But if I had to choose again, SanDisk might give apple a run for its money.
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Wow, it looks better than the Nano. If I had the spare cash, and needed the space, this is what I'd buy.
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this is the approach MS should've taken with their upcoming mp3 player line ....
IMO, this SanDisk player beats the iPod by far,
i will not point out why, as anyone with sufficient intelligence will notice.
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Sweet, give overpriced and overhyped ipods a run for their money. But then again, I'd rather pay an extra 100 bucks get a 60gb hd player. Thats an extra 52gb for just a $100.
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Me too! But the lower capacity Flash player has a tremendous advantage: lighter, longer battery life, more shock resistant. As there is no moving parts in a flash player, it has theoritically a much longer life span.
However, it will requires some works to renew the content of the Flash player's few GB once a while. That is the compromise I found out to be better (for me) than the HD players.
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I agree that it is good to see another company giving Apple some competition however the actual price difference will probably be even greater because many retailers are selling the Sandisk players below MSRP because the typical margins are so much larger than their competitors. Even big box stores like Best Buy regularly sell them below the MSRP. A bargain hunter could easily find a Sandisk player for 15-20% off MSRP. Most retailers can't even buy iPods at those types of discounts.
Apple is going to have either drop their prices to be more competitive with Sandisk(which I think is overdue) or cede much of the low end market to Sandisk.
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Besides, getting the 2GB for $139 would still allow for a virtually unlimited amount of space when you use the Micro-SD cards.
Of course, you're paying ~$80 a pop for those, but if these things take off, prices will drop, I am sure.
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I doubt that Apple will drop their prices. They have loyal/blind followers that don't care how expensive or good/bad their products are, just as long as it had an Apple logo on it.
When I read the specs on the e280 it completely blows ipod out of the water. With digital FM tuner, on-the-fly FM recording, and voice recording. And best of all, a user replaceable battery and miroSD expansion. It looks like (on paper at least) SanDisk hit a home run with this one. Now if they could just make a 100+gb hd version I will have the perfect player.
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The iPod Nano is so inferior it is not worth to compare it with the latest Flash players from SanDisk, Creative, iRiver Meizu M6, etc. In addition to their good price, the SanDisk e2xx models have these extra advantage: scratch resistant case, user replacable battery, screen display quality, excellent tech support.
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These players are much better than Apple iPod nano. Their main advantage is the micro-SD expansion slot. Thanks to it you will never need a hard-disk equipped player to have more space and firmware updates should ensure that when larger than 2GB (currently the largest) micro-SD cards get released they will work.
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