Gateway Inc. plans to make portable digital music player

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 11, 2003

POWAY, Calif. (AP) -- Gateway Inc. said last week that it would begin selling its own portable digital music players, extending its march from a personal-computer maker into a broad array of consumer electronics.

Gateway said its player with 128 megabytes of storage space, enough for about two hours of music in MP3 format, is available at its stores for $130. A 256-megabyte version will be available Thursday for $170.

Gateway said the player weighs 1.5 ounces and is a half-inch wide, about the size of a pack of chewing gum. It connects to computers through a USB port.

Gateway is introducing 50 products this year as it morphs from a traditional PC company to a manufacturer of televisions, digital cameras, DVD players and other gadgets. The campaign is Gateway's latest effort to halt a slide in its business that began in 2000.