New BenQ MP3 player is all the buzz
Seems the new Joybee MP3 player is showing up online for sale in Taiwan with more bells and whistles than its predecessors.
The new palm-sized Joybee 220 from BenQ ships in three different versions: a 128MB device that sells for $156, a 512MB version for $181 and a 1GB version retailing for $223. Songs are loaded in through the device's USB cable.
The flash memory device features a 1.4-inch, 65,000-color LCD screen with a bright-colored dock, integrated loudspeakers and separate bass and gain control. Like its cousins, the new Joybee can accommodate MP3 files. But the latest version now plays WAV and WMA music files as well as reading and displaying JPEG image file formats.
The Joybee also has a lithium-ion battery that lets the device play music for about 11 hours on one charge.
BenQ executives told DigiTimes they predict there will be about a million MP3 players sold in Taiwan and that it expects to sell 200,000 players in the next 12 months. That's one out of every fifth player sold in the region.
Outside of Taiwan, BenQ is known as the company that spun off back in 2001 from Acer Communication & Multimedia, the peripherals manufacturing unit of PC manufacturer Acer.
The company recently inked a deal that would have it buy Siemens' loss-making mobile phone unit for $429 million.