Disney Adds Video Player To Portable Line For Tweens

Tinker Bell Style Mix Max_front.jpgDisney’s quest to mesh content sales and branded media hardware continues with the launch of “Mix Max” — a $99 device that adds video to the Mix portable player line launched last year with the audio-only Disney Mix Stick. Scheduled for delivery in October, the video player has a 2.2-inch LCD with 512 MB ram standard (240 songs or five hours of 30-frames-per-second video); memory can go up to 2 GB with SD cards. The rechargeable battery is built in and it has USB 2.0 . In addition to MP3, it supports Windows Media DRM 10, which means content should be downloadable from the Windows-based music services.
The other part of the equation is Disney’s own content, where the focus is not on downloads but on selling music and video on MMC cards. Disney Max Video Clips — up to two-hour movies from the company’s Buena Vista Home Entertainment — will list at $19.99. Of course, High School Musical will be one of the first titles. (The cards are supposed to appeal to parents as easier than downloads but wait until kids start losing $20 postage-stamp-sized movies.) Music Mix Clips retail for $14.99.
It’s a natural progression for Disney, especially given the corporate emphasis on portable video. It’s been hard to gauge the success of the original Mix Stick, which got my attention and that of some tweens I know when it showed up in Target months ago. (It didn’t get their dollars.) It gets very little display these days at the stores I visit but, according to Disney, NPD ranks it in the top 10 of flash-based MP3 players sold at retail in the U.S. Disney is also revamping the audio line and adding a Mix Micro for list $19.99; it comes with an SD/MMC slot and runs off a AAA battery. This tiny player could wind up working for adults. New music titles are being added from Disney’s tween label Hollywood Records.
— Chris Heatherly, global VP, Disney global electronics, tells the WSJ (sub. req.), which had the story first: “We intentionally left the platform open because we knew kids would want other video material.” — Other new CE from the Disney consumer products group include digital cameras for kids and the Disney GAMEiT portable gaming device, which comes loaded with 12 Disney- character games aimed at kids 6 plus. Release.
Related: Yahoo Pushes Futher Into MP3; Launches Full Album With Disney Label
Disney To Offer MP3 Player Aimed At 6-12 Year Olds

Comments have been disabled for this post