Yahoo has teamed up with Sandisk and start-up Zing to promote a new digital music player with wireless connectivity, reports the Wall Street Journal. The new digital music player will essentially be a special edition of previously announced Sansa Connect that allows consumers to download music wirelessly and without requiring a PC.
The new device is going to cost about $250. SanDisk’s Sansa range has about 9% of the total digital music player market. The tri-party effort is the latest in the long list of attempts by companies looking to take a bite out of Apple’s market share - with limited success, I must add.
The triumvirate believes that a couple of features (wireless connectivity and PC less downloads) can give them a leg up on Apple. If those were must have features, then Microsoft (with Zune), Toshiba and Music Gremlins would have much higher market share. And why hasn’t Apple added similar functionality? Maybe it is just so that consumers are happy with the elegant simplicity of iPod line of music players.
The alliance seems to be a marriage of convenience. Zing, despite the buzz hasn’t exactly proved to be David Wright of Consumer Electronics. And Yahoo, well their music efforts have come in fits-and-starts. The only winner in this deal is SanDisk – it manages to sell flash memory at premium prices instead of being stuck with commodity pricing.
Update: Yahoo Music Blog has posted the details of this new device:
…allowing you to listen to personalized radio, download music, share music with friends over Yahoo! Messenger, and view photos from Flickr, all direct over any Wifi network. Here are a few of the features not shared by either iPod or Zune:
- Personalized streaming LAUNCHcast radio
- Unlimited music downloads for $12/month direct over Wifi from Yahoo! Music Unlimited
- Dynamically updated “mix lists”
- Share music recommendations with friends via Yahoo! Messenger (your friend doesn’t even need the Sansa Connect)
- Photos from Flickr
1 trackback so far
2:15 PM PT
[...] SanDisk Sansa Connect MP3 Player Με Wifi και υποστήριξη για το Yahoo! Music ($12/month για unlimited μουσική) το Sansa Connect δείχνει να είναι η μόνη συσκευή που θα μπορούσε ίσως να αντικαταστήσει το iPod nano μου (ναι, αγόρασα καινούργιο…). Ενδιαφέρον έχει το σχετικό άρθρο του TechCrunch αλλά και αυτό του GigaOM. [...]
7 comments so far
1:58 AM PT
Before Yahoo to get into any other ventures they should make sure their present product, Yahoo Messenger, works properly. Almost everyone l chat with ( when l can get a connection) compains of continually being disconnected and unable to reconnect with Yahoo. Getting into a room takes ages and often timed out before connecting. I will never use any other Yahoo products until they get Messenger right
8:24 AM PT
You forgot to mention the Creative Zen Vision player, which is better than the iPod. The iPod unfairly dominates the market. Everything is always iPod and Creative gets go recogition.
10:22 AM PT
I wonder what will be fate of these devices, with the convergence of multimedia features in cellphones. Why would people want to carry a music player like this, when they are getting good enough features on the cell phones. Like the nokia n5300 and now n95 and the iphone.
11:03 AM PT
doesn’t sandisk also have a deal with realnetworks? how does the yahoo! music deal affect that relationship?
11:31 AM PT
Davin, since when is business fair? Many would argue that the iPod is superior, including me, because of the iTunes integration. Apple didn’t give up its iron grip last week because no other player will integrate as well with iTunes if at all. It’s iTunes that provides the lock-in, not the DRM. iTunes preceded the iPod so competitors have had an even longer time to design better software, but haven’t.
1:06 PM PT
Competition is a good thing. I hope they make a better product than what Microsoft have done with the terrible Zune.
6:39 AM PT
What sense does this make? That’s like (link) selling shoes or (link) selling used tires. Stay within your business model Yahoo