More on Sansa. Isn't the product line just 1 year old? The old 2nd place incumbent was Creative, and I think they've got the most to lose. All the contenders have tried to compete with iPod on a variety of levels. Price is the main point, and at the under $100 level, many of the competitors add features that may sway buyers, such as adding a screen, higher capacity, FM tuner, FM transmitter, voice recorder, etc. They've also been working with the non-iTunes camps to tie into the competing music services.
Shuffle is also less than 1 year old, but it will be killed soon.
The true competitive advantage of Sandisk and Samsung is their supply of flash which is reportedly the largest cost factor in MP3 players. I expect this cost advantage to put these two at number 2 and 3.
I agree.
Lastly Sony needs to be in this arena, so should be coming out with something soon. Aside from one of these players buying up Creative or their MP3 division, they're going to have a tough time. Good thing MP3 players is not their only line.
Sony already has flash based mp3 players but their models have not met much success. Expect Sony to revamp their product line soon. They have something in mind, else what will they do with all that flash that they are planning to buy from Samsung? No point buying Creative. What do they get by buying them??
One more note on design, Sandisk did come out with the SD plus cards (built-in usb), which is not too shabby.
Yes, Sandisk introduced them but they were not the first one to introduce a card which has a built-in USB interface. It was introduced by another company (I forget their name) from asia.
-Pam |
