SanDisk introduced its latest attempt Monday at stealing market share from Apple Computer’s ubiquitous iPod: the Sansa e280, a flash-based MP3 player with double the storage capacity of the iPod nano.
The Sunnyvale, California-based memory and device maker also lowered the prices of its existing Sansa e200 line of digital music players to get a head start on holiday season sales.
SanDisk announced the Sansa e200 series back in January with three players (see SanDisk Chases iPod). The latest in the series, the Sansa e280, includes 8 gigabytes (GB) of Flash memory, plus an optional 2 GB microSD card, for a total of 10 GB.
The iPod nano, in contrast, is available in 1, 2, and 4 GB capacities. The price of the 4 GB nano is $249, virtually the same as the Sansa e280 at $249.99.
Shares of SanDisk rose $0.40 to $51.57 in recent trading.
The 10 GB capacity of the Sansa e280 enables the player to store up to 2,500 songs, according to SanDisk. It also comes with a digital FM tuner that allows users to record songs off the air and store them on the device.
In addition, the device offers photo display and video playback capabilities with the help of Sansa Media Converter software.
The Sansa e280 also boasts a voice recorder with a microphone, a 1.8-inch TFT (thin film transistor) color screen, a scratch-resistant alloy metal back casing, and a user-replaceable lithium ion battery with up to 20 hours of battery life before it has to be recharged.
Apple iPod owners have frequently complained about the difficulty of replacing batteries in the devices.
The device supports both MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) files and uses Microsoft’s PlaysForSure digital rights management system, which enables customers to download songs from different music services such as Napster, Yahoo Music, and RealNetworks’ Rhapsody.
However, users would not be able to download from Apple’s iTunes Music Store to the device.
For customers who don’t demand the high capacity of the latest Sansa model, SanDisk is also steeply reducing prices of the earlier models.
The 2GB Sansa e250, which used to sell for $199.99, will now cost $139.99; the 4 GB Sansa e260 used to cost $229.99 and will now be priced at $179.99; the 6 GB Sansa e270 formerly sold for $299.99 and will now cost $219.99.
Cutting out the Middleman
SanDisk said it is able to cut the prices because it manufactures the flash memory that goes into the devices themselves.
“The most costly ingredient in a flash-based MP3 player is the flash memory,” Eric Bone, director of audio/video product marketing at SanDisk, said in a statement. “Since we make the flash memory, we essentially remove the middleman and pass that savings directly to the consumer.”
While the player boasts lots of advanced features, Avi Greengart, principal analyst for mobile devices at the research firm Current Analysis, does not believe it’s going to seriously challenge the iPod nano in the market.
“The typical consumer is happy with 2 to 4 gigs of storage,” he said. “In order to store much video or your entire collection of music, you would need at least 20 gigs, so having 8 doesn’t really solve that particular need.
“On the other hand, if you’re looking for a non-iPod MP3 player with certain features Apple doesn’t offer, like a voice recorder, or you want to use Rhapsody To Go, SanDisk is doing a nice job,” he added.
Mr. Greengart pointed out that the screen is bigger, brighter, and more colorful on the Sansa, which aids with video playback. “This product is not going to kill off the nano by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a good product,” he said.
The microSD capability would also enable users to take a card from a music phone that supports that form of storage and put it in the device, he noted.
Carm Lyman, a spokesperson for SanDisk, said the higher-capacity microSD card was new for the Sansa. Previous versions of the player had an expansion slot that could only support a 1 GB card. Now SanDisk offers a 2 GB card that it sells at Verizon Wireless stores.
“If you put the two together, it makes it a 10-gig player,” she said.
Contact the writer:
MCohn@RedHerring.com
08-22-2006, 07:08 PM
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