SanDisk out with tiny digital music players
Company says it plans to challenge Apple for dominance in the "flash" memory player market.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, SanDisk introduced a 6GB player made with flash memory--chips that are smaller and lighter than hard disk drive technology memory and also have no moving parts. The Sansa e270 player is expected to cost about $300.
SanDisk said it intends to take on Apple, whose hot-selling iPod Nano device also uses flash memory. Apple's largest-capacity Nano is 4GB and costs $249.
"Ultimately, we would like to make this a two horse race, and reach 35-40 percent market share," said Nelson Chan, SanDisk vice president and general manager.
SanDisk has about 29 percent of the flash category market, while Apple has about 49 percent, said The NPD Group, an industry research firm.
Apple, which sells both flash based and hard disk drive based players, dominates the overall global market for digital music players.