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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation
WDC 174.21+6.9%Nov 10 3:59 PM EST

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To: astyanax who wrote (11831)6/7/2000 3:27:00 PM
From: Ausdauer  Read Replies (1) of 60323
 
Netconductor,

There are several devices which allow you to write MP3's to a CD-ROM and then listen to the songs on a portable CD player configured to decode MP3. The advantage is that you end up with a large number of songs that you can take with you. A blank CD holds some 650 MB which is like 150 MP3's recorded with a standard sampling rate.

The flash memory devices have the advantage of minimal battery consumption, no moving parts (skip-free) and compact size. The disadvantage currently is the cost of blank media.

I bought my wife's 16 y.o. cousin an MP3 player called the I-Jam. It is the size of a Motorola pager with excellent audio quality. It even has an FM tuner in it. You and easily conceal this device in your palm. I paid $72.00 for a blank 32MB SanDisk MultiMediaCard. The player currently prices about $99.99 on the Internet.

Hopefully next year and beyond we will have very affordable 64 MB MMC cards. MP3 is a very price sensitive market as the consumers are basically teenagers and college age kids. Currently these cards cost more than the $99.99 - $129.99 you'll spend on the players themselves. Once pricing for MMC comes into the $49.99 range and below (about half the cost of the player) and storage capacity checks in at 64 MB and above there should be a huge upswing in demand. This is the reason the Toshiba/SanDisk JV is so crucial.

The Internet Audio market will be volume driven and elastic. I suspect SmartMedia and MMC, both products of the FlashVision JV, will be battling to become the de facto MP3 standard.

Ausdauer
(P.S. Now my wife wants an I-Jam for her workouts at the gym.)
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