Centre stage for MP3 - Brief Article

Electronics Times, Nov 29, 1999

A large sector within the Internet appliance market will be devices which let consumers download and play back MP3-based digital music and other audio content from on-line sites. The gadgets follow in the footsteps of the Rio from Diamond Media, which records music from Web sites that users can later play back through headphones.

One negative market trend affecting the sale of MP3 players is the rising cost of computer memory, which is threatening to put the devices out of range of millions of potential buyers as the price point is starting to exceed twice that of more traditional CD-based machines such as the Sony Walkman.

The MP3 players on show included:

* Sony's Music Clip, a 4.7in long, 64Mbyte device built around the company's `memory stick, which holds up to 120min of downloaded music. The $299 Music Clip runs on two AA batteries and will be available this spring

* The Rush from Philips, like many of these devices, offers 32Mbyte of flash memory, enough for one to two hours of recorded content (above)

* Hong Kong-based Pine Technology is selling its D'music series in see- through pink, green and blue starting the end of this month. The $249 model includes 64Mbyte of memory

* C-One Tech of South Korea showed off its 10z digital player, MP Wow, a wristwatch-size gadget expected to go on sale over the Internet in the US in time for the Christmas shopping season. The $169 model can store only about four songs

* Creative Labs in Silicon Valley showed its Nomad 2 digital player that includes a backlit screen for displaying title, track and other information. The system will be priced between $300 and $400 and has 32Mbyte of memory.