Milpitas, Calif.— SanDisk unveiled the industry’s highest capacity flash-memory MP3 player, which incorporates 8GB of embedded memory and features a microSD expansion slot to add another 2GB of storage capacity.
The Sansa e280, which features video playback and photo viewer, retails for a suggested $249.99. It joins the e200 series whose 2GB, 4GB, and 6GB models prices have been reduced to suggested $139, $179, and $219, respectively. Until now, the only 6GB flash-memory players available in the U.S. were from San Disk and Thomson, whose models retail for $169.
The Sansa e200 is 0.5×1.7x 3.5 inches with 1.8-inch TFT color screen its Microsoft PlaysForSure-certified and features FM tuner, FM recording, voice recording, a user-replaceable lithium ion battery with up to 20 hours of music-playback capability, metal-alloy casing, and included Sansa Media Converter software to transcode videos.
SanDisk got the price down, said Eric Bone, director of AV product marketing, because SanDisk makes its own flash memory. “The most costly ingredient in a flash-based MP3 player is the flash memory,” he said. “Since we make the flash memory, we essentially remove the middleman.”
