Sansa SlotMusic Player: Hot Product Or This Year's Betamax?
SanDisk, a manufacturer of MP3 players and flash memory cards, is gambling that some still prefer to own their music on tangible media. The company is playing up the simplicity of the Sansa slotMusic Player, highlighting that consumers don't need a PC and the Internet to obtain and manage their music.
The Sansa slotMusic Player doesn't have memory or screens, just some basic controls. It uses a USB slot for the 1-GB microSD cards. In addition to the basic model, SanDisk is building artist-branded versions of the product, priced at $34.99, with pictures of Abba, Robin Thicke and others bundled with slotMusic cards pre-loaded with those musicians' albums.
Four major music labels are providing their music in the microSD format: EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. But so far the SanDisk's slotMusic Web site lists only 30 albums available in the microSD format, including "Abba Gold," "Elvis 30 #1 Hits" and "Jimmy Buffet Songs You Know."
"This year's biggest releases will be arriving on slotMusic," the site promises. "Check back soon for more artist announcements." Missing from the product's backers are digital music distributors such as Apple's iTunes and Amazon.com.
Some industry observers say SanDisk faces an uphill battle to win wide consumer acceptance for the microSD technology and keep it from joining eight-track tapes, laserdiscs and betamax tape players on the trash heap of failed and obsolete consumer electronics.
