SanDisk looks to Wi-Fi music with MusicGremlin buy

By Ed Oswald | Published June 11, 2008, 12:01 PM

SanDisk could be considering offering customers of its Wi-Fi enabled music players a method to download music directly to players, if its latest acquisition is any indication.

SanDisk's Sansa Connect is the company's signature Wi-Fi enabled player, which allowed for Yahoo Music Unlimited downloads wirelessly. With that service now defunct and users being transferred to Rhapsody, the company is likely looking to fill that hole.

Enter MusicGremlin. This music service will be folded into SanDisk's Sansa media player division, with its chief executive Robert Khedouri joining SanDisk as Sansa's services chief.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and SanDisk did not say when the MusicGremlin service will be made available to customers with compatible players. Audio/video business unit head Daniel Schreiber did say the company's technologies will play a key role in the development of future products.

MusicGremlin has been around since 2003, and launched its own branded wireless player in 2006. However, with two major players -- Apple and Microsoft -- already hoarding that space, the service never took off.

Microsoft's Zune beat Apple's iPod in the race to make Wi-Fi a signature part of its overall value proposition. Apple followed suit with its iPhone and iPod Touch products a year later.