SanDisk Ready to Go Up Against Apple's iPod with the Sansa c200 MP3 Player

By Patrick Barnard

TMCnet Associate Editor

 

Fresh on the heels of the release of its 8GB Sansa e280 MP3 player - “the world’s largest capacity, flash-based MP3 player” - SanDisk Corporation today introduced the Sansa c200 MP3 player, a less expensive, more “mainstream” model with a bright 1.4 inch LCD color screen and expandable memory.

The new player, which costs under $100, offers sleek design, microSD card slot, removeable and rechargeable lithium ion battery, FM radio and voice recorder.

The introduction of this affordably-priced MP3 player puts SanDisk head-to-head against Apple’s iPod and other MP3 player entrants (including Philips, Samsung and eventually Microsoft (News - Alert)) in the multi-billion dollar MP3 player market. Toshiba (News - Alert) is set to be the manufacturer of Microsoft’s new “Zune” portable music player (aka “the iPod Killer”), which will come with a 30GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi (News - Alert) module and an FM tuner. Microsoft has pledged to launch the device, as well as a “Zune” online music and video store, in time for the year-end holiday shopping season.


SanDisk’s c200, which will be available in October, is sold with either 1GB or 2GB capacity, however, the memory can be expanded with the addition of an optional card, which is available in capacities of from 256 MB to 2GB. Using a 2GB card, a user can transform a 2GB player into a 4GB player to hold nearly 2,000 songs (at 64kbps).

The c200 supports WMA, MP3 and the protected WMA DRM format that gives consumers the ability to purchase or subscribe to music from most music service providers.

“The c200 has some of the characteristics of SanDisk’s award-winning e200 series, including a small and sleek design and a microSD memory card slot that allows for expansion opportunities,” said Keith Washo, SanDisk retail product marketing manager for the c200, in a press release. “We believe that the c200, with its great price point, will give consumers an attractive set of features normally found in players costing much more.”

The c200 joins a family of Sansa players that also includes the budget-priced m200, with capacities of 512MB, 1 and 2GB; and the top-of-the-line e200, which has a 1.8-inch TFT color screen, plays music, photos and video clips and comes in capacities of 2, 4, 6 and the industry-leading 8GB.

SanDisk boasts being original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world’s largest supplier of flash data storage card products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. The company is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif.

For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.