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To: astyanax who wrote (11831)	6/7/2000 2:23:00 PM
From: Starlight	Respond to of 60323

>>>>it's the first time I've heard of MP3 players using hard drives in lieu of flash memory<<<<< This is nothing new. We've discussed here the IBM MicroDrive. There are evidently some problems with it, and it hasn't been too reliable. Go back 100 posts or so, and you'll probably find our discussion.

To: astyanax who wrote (11831)	6/7/2000 3:27:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to 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.)