SanDisk Corporation introduced today its SanDisk Sansa e200 MP3 player with a large color screen and 6GB of storage capacity for listening to music or viewing photos and personal videos. The company also introduced the Sansa c100, a value-conscious MP3 player with a color screen and compact size. Both families were unveiled at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in Booth #30329, South Hall Level 3, Las Vegas Convention Center.
The Sansa e200 series features a slim new design and a 1.8-inch (4.572 cm) TFT color screen (QCIF+) along with high-quality audio, photo viewing and video playback capabilities. It offers an industry-leading, 6GB capacity ($299) that holds more than 1,400 MP3 songs (4 mins. per song, 128kbps MP3, 64kbps WMA). It is also available in 2GB ($199) and 4GB ($249) models.
SanDisk took pains to note that the players’ back cover is made with a Titanium alloy from Liquidmetal Technologies that is “stronger than steel and highly resistant to scratches and wear.” It includes a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery which can be replaced by the customer to ensure the player provides many years of continuous service. Dimensions of the Sansa e200 are 1.7 in. wide x 3.5 in. long x 0.5 in. high (4.4 cm wide x 8.9 cm long x 1.3 cm high).
For instant access to millions of digital songs, the Sansa e200 series players will support Microsoft PlaysForSure so consumers can download and pay for songs individually or download an unlimited amount of music for a flat monthly subscription fee from music stores such as Rhapsody To Go and others.
The Sansa e200 series features include:
• Icon-based menu for easy navigation
• Slideshow function to conveniently view photos and play music simultaneously
• FM tuner with on-the-fly recording to save your favorite songs or programs
• microSD expansion slot for additional memory capacity and support for SanDisk TrustedFlash and gruvi content cards that can be shared with mobile phones
• Universal accessory connector for the easy addition of future accessories.
Note: Sandisk has about 29 percent of the worldwide flash player market, while Apple has about 49 percent, according to NPD Group.
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Umm yeh its pritty shit ill keep my ipod insted 0f a clone
ILL STAY LOYAL TO APPLE
“But what would you like “the Clones” to do?” I dunno, maybe something halfway frickin’ original??? Maybe something other than “wait for Apple to come out with the latest iPod and then shamelessly rip it off”.
Y’know, I’m gaining new respect for Sony. For all the mistakes they’ve made in their players (I’d certainly never buy one), nevertheless, at least their players look very original. They don’t just ape every form factor Apple comes out with!
MDN
Where do they claim it to be an “iPod Killer”?
Good job LordRobin, you managed to completely miss the point of what I was trying to say. It takes a special kind of stupidity to fail at the only thing really important on an online message board – reading comprehension. Your parents must be proud.
Anyway, I was addressing the criticism of the players inabaility to use iTunes. Not what I would hypothetcially like to see “the Clones do”.
Yes, we can throw the “original” claims at all the other players of the world, but most sucessful items outh there stick close to what works and then put its own unique spin on the product to set it apart. Sony innovated with the Walkman, and then other companies came along and did it better, for the most part all while sticking to what worked for Sony.
Same for Xerox.
Same for IBM.
Etc, etc….
Is there anything original about this Sandisk player? Not really. But it does have some pretty decent features, a nice look, and sports a decent price for what it does, much like the iPod.
An end to end experience like the iPod and iTunes it’s not, but it is one of the few players that doesn’t try to be exactly like an iPod yet fail so god damn miserably as to be laughable. Believe it or not copying the iPod must not be that easy to do because countless companies spending millions of dollars trying to do so have been largely unsucessful. Not only unsuccesful, but completely pathetic.
Sandisk seems to have deviated a bit from that trend, which is a good thing. Competition is a good thing for consumers. I like to see a little competition to make sure Apple stays on it’s toes.
Will I be getting a Sandisk? No, I have 4 iPods right now, and couldn’t be happier.
But what I was saying in my original post is I can’t knock a player for not working with iTunes, until iTunes is willing to work with other players.
If you want to refute a point I made, that’s fine, but refute what I was saying because you have a decent counter point. Just don’t use my words to argue another side of the conversation. You only prove that you are a jackass, and have the reading skills of a 3rd grader.
>slike: Apple better start think about licensing or it may start to lose market share. They’re not invulnerable despite the rhetoric of MDN. This is a nice looking unit and I’d buy it – itunes or no.
I’d rather rip and download than pay for 128 kb song anyways.
There are probably many who share this point of view.
As huge a lead Apple has, they aren’t the only ones who can design and build great products. It’s not IF competitors can come up with something great, it’s WHEN!
I can live without iTunes myself, but I’d probably use it to rip my CDs to mp3 and use it on any mp3 player.
Since Fairplay steps all over Fair Use rights, I’d just remove the Fairplay-buy-another-iPod-lock from all purchased music. That’s IF I decide to start purchasing songs from Apple.
Too many unneeded features
I’ll stick with a real scroll wheel, KISS, and perfect software integration
And as already mentioned, this player is 2X larger because its as thick as a 30Gig Video iPod. Thats the model it should be competing against considering the price.
But liquid metal would be cool. Instead of replacable battery, just include a 3 year battery warranty (bring it into any apple store, they test it and replace the battery if its bad for free, in 24hours) Removable battery is just asking for broken hinges and extra size.
Close, but no cigar….
You know, if it were cheaper than a nano with 6 gig and its existing features…..but it costs the same price as a 30 gig regular iPod video!
Let’s face it, Apple is the Hertz of mp3 players. The only choice sandisk will have is to be the Avis, and try harder. To overcome Apple, they will have to offer more and better features, and more memory, all at a lower price than Apple. It’s not as stylish and innovative as the iPod, and clunkier as well.
It’s not that Apple doesn’t have anything to learn from it, though. Imagine a new nano with video, a SD expansion slot, and that doesn’t scratch?
If this product fails and goes on the 1/2 price rack at BestBuy, then I may have to get one. Otherwise, it’s a very, very near miss.
Say it together, everyone:
COMPETITION FOR APPLE IS GOOD FOR APPLE . . . AND ALL OF US!
Make your time.
I think this is a pretty sexy player, and i dont see it as a clone at all! ^_^
First thing SanDisk made that I actually like, and yes carson the suck, you are very right
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Looks nice, seeing as Apple has pricing power over its competition; it’s only real competitors are flash memory mfrs themselves like SanDisk, who can pass on savings to its retail operations.
It looks like it has “tall screen,” rather than wide screen. Do you turn it?
CLONING skills are are on the up… almost up to the levels of Mycrowsoft and Vista with the OSX rip.
But alack, no scroll wheel, no neat digital experience with iTunes… so it’ll be another sad affair, even if it looks OK.
..and do go buy one ‘Mac & PC guy’. I’m sure you’ll look very cool with it – a bit of a fake of course, but then you probably wear a fake Rolex too…
clyde – you ever complain about the nano being about the same price as the ipod?
didn´t think so.
This product looks nice and will get lots of buyers.
And you can add memory to this one!
Cool!
Lots of things that I wish my iPod had or could do. We will see what the new iPods are like next week!
I think it’s a great little beast. Sort of looks like a mobile phone, and doesn’t have masses of unnecessary buttons. But only if Microsoft can deliver a more integrated and easier to use Windows Media Player, and that’s a big if, does it have a chance of reaching it’s fully potential.
It must kill SanDisk to be so reliant on another company’s mediocre products when their own designers can obviously come up with something much better.
Excellent, finally a competitor for the iPod. Who needs iTunes, there are plenty of stores out there and you can still rip CD’s and use P2P content…
Looks pretty cool for a non-Apple-design. Regarding the form factor, it is more like an ipod video with flash memory rather than an iPod nano.
For the time being, Apple is not likely to license their DRM because that would hurt their own iPod sales. So all competitors are somewhat stuck with “plays-for-sure” WMA regardless if they are happy with it or not.
Only time will tell…
Apple engineers aren’t dumbass playalong monkeys waiting for a good idea to come along, they make the good ideas. To make a good idea, you have to take everything into consideration, everything. These things are nice that the other people are doing: market research for Apple. One of the benefits of being an innovator in the backward, innefficient system that capitalism is.
If something becomes amusing to the consumer, Apple will quickly not only come out with something similar, but more likely with something better, because those thoughts have been thunk already.
These foolish monkeys are also not interested in the consumer, because all of this garbage they’re offering them is what the company wants, not the people. People want Podcasts, they want ease of use and they want integration.
They don’t want to record the shows themselves, they want the shows already recorded so they don’t have to put up with all the BS.
Think R2D2, not HAL 9000
iPod: “You want a piece of me? Bring it on.”
(Actually, I agree that competition is good for everyone. Even when Uncreative and Unreal keep stabbing the market with rubber knives.)
Why would ANYONE pay $299 for the 6GB version when they can just get a 30GB 5G iPod for the same price? or the other two versions when they can get a nano for the same price.
At the same price, people will by the iPod Nano, simply because it’s an “iPod”. That’s how much control apple has over this market.
MDN´s coverage of all the news at CES is really poor.
Look at this new gadget, soon to be a version made for the iPod.
Record songs to your iPod direct from an FM radio signal…
http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/06/timetraxs-popcatcher/
Is it just me, or does the icon interface look a lot like Front Row? It’s not just copying the iPods, but also Front Row!
Question lilaliend –
Why would ANYONE pay $249 for the 4GB NANO when they can just get a 30GB 5G iPod for just $50 more?
(And the Sandisk 4GB costs the same as the 4GB Nano…)
People will buy this SanDisk player(which looks cool and has great features) because they don´t want to do the iTunes proprietary shuffle…they just record the MP3 from other sources…
——–
P.S. Now we all know what size the next Nano is that is introduced next week – 6GB.
Apple missed out on all the surprise announcements coming out a week later….
“FM tuner with on-the-fly recording to save your favorite songs or programs”
You have to admit – that is a cool feature. Record the songs off the radio – why buy them?
iPod can´t & won´t do that (cause Steve wants you to buy them from him!).
Nice device.
The FM tuner/recording: interesting feature. I wonder though, if radio tuners have not made other players decent competitors to the iPod, is it really a highly prized function? I know some people really like it, but what percent of people want it?
Re: “iTunes proprietary shuffle…they just record the MP3 from other sources..”
All the music players and the major download stores have a DMR scheme. The iTMS DRM is trivial to defeat – Apple even tells you how to do it. I do wish the DRM didn’t exist in the first place, but to say it is a deal breaker is stretching it. Also, you can already encode mp3s from many sources already. I understand that some people may want to record from FM, but does that really add value for a significant percent of people that will buy such devices? Just curious.
Not to beat the whole FM thing into the ground, but one benefit of portable music players with thousands of songs is that you dont have to listen to radio – you essentially have your own radio station with songs that you’ve already approved. Again, I know some people do want this feature, but I believe that the majority of people that buy these devices don’t want that function. The one area I see a real need is talk radio. Though Podcasts do address this in some way, I can see how that would be desirable.