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Sony takes on iPod Shuffle
Ben writes "It seems that Sony has decided to take on Apple with a low cost flash based player that will go up against the Shuffle.
Pocket-lint has
the low down on some of the stats,
as does the BBC and Engadget." The major improvement in my eyes is that some models have an FM tuner.
ie: they're already the de-facto standard in a market that's 2 months old.
If you think that the market for small flash-based MP3 players is only two months old, or that the Shuffle is already the de-facto standard, then you are obviously smoking something good.
Small flash-based Mp3 players have been readily available for at least 2 years - the Shuffle is competing in an already saturated market, whose sales are currently being domniated not by big name players, but by no-name Korean imports that can be had for less than fifty bucks.
On top of that, aside from the brand recognition and the fact that it is white, there is really nothing new that the Shuffle brings to the plate, since every single one of these players ( including the shuffle ) are so small that you can only fit a few buttons onto them at all. There is no useability factor at play here like there is with the original iPod - if Apple succeds in dominating this market as well, it will be due to marketing alone.