[Keyboard Cowboy]

I was having a short talk with one of my account reps yesturday about one of this newer product. And this led on to MP3 / MEDIA Players.
Some thing to be on the look out for in the next 12 months (or as soon as Manufacturing costs come down) is MEDIA PLAYER BARE BONES. This basically means that you get yourself a CASE with a built in screen. And after that, you get to choose was size laptop hard drive you can install.

Right now they are avalable in some parts of asia. But the problem why we are no seeing them all over the place now is that by the time you import, add mark up, (etc. etc.), and then throw in the cost of a LAPTOP hard drive. You are going to be better off just getting a iPOD or Creative Xen. How ever predictions show that some time in the next 12 months, production cost should come down and these Media Player Bare Bones shojuld be more wildly avalable.

Personally, I thinking GREAT for a few reason.
1. Some of the prices differences between a 20Gb Media Player and 40Gb Media Player is an over exagerated mark up. We all not that the price between a 20Gb Laptop Drive and a 40Gb Laptop Drive is NOT AU$150.

2. Seagate 5 Year Warranty on laptop drive, the part that is most likely to fail on a iPOD. (Yes Please.)

3. Finally, when these hit the market, they should force the price on the existing products that are currently out on the market.


Unfortunatly, I don't have any manufactures links on this. But is some thing to look forward to.

[Qiranworms]

Hmm...interesting.

What about the Firmware? What sort of controls? Do they SOUND any good?

Lastly...how big are laptop hard drives anyway? ...because iPod's are quite small...and I always thought that these Hitachi and Toshiba drives players have been using are smaller then laptop drives.

[Keyboard Cowboy]

Originally posted by qiranworms
What about the Firmware? What sort of controls? Do they SOUND any good?

No Idea. I guess I am going to have to wait until is ecconmically viable to first to import them.

Originally posted by qiranworms
Lastly...how big are laptop hard drives anyway? ...because iPod's are quite small...and I always thought that these Hitachi and Toshiba drives players have been using are smaller then laptop drives.

Standard Laptop Drive is 10cm (L), 7cm (W), 1cm (H). (sorry, can not convert to inches)

I do know that companies like seagate do produce smaller drive mainly for the consumer electronics. However it's not impossible for me to purchase one of these.

Unfortunalty I wish i did have some more info on this, but I do not.

Some thing to look forward to in the new year.

[Qiranworms]

Thanks. Definitely interesting, but for now I'm probably sticking with my iPod.

By the way, metric is no problem for me. I'm in Canada, eh? But for the sake of the people here who use the Imperial system, (rounded to 2 decimal places because going farther is probably negligable), 3.94"(l), 2.76"(w), and 0.39"(h).

[Keyboard Cowboy]

Originally posted by qiranworms
Thanks. Definitely interesting, but for now I'm probably sticking with my iPod.

Pretty much my attitude until price of production comes down.