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I recently caught wind of this interesting piece of technology. The concept is simple: bring an XM Radio-like experience to the user without the need for subscriptions and extra hardware. This means 1000 songs in a random playlist that requires zero setup; plug in the micro SD card into the player and you’re ready to go. The playlists come pre-installed with Billboard’s top 1000 songs in various genres.
I like the idea of quick music on the go. This gadget would be GREAT for car trips. It would sell very well at gas stations and rest stops. However, there are a few nagging issues I have with it. First, the player will launch at $100. It includes an FM tuner, a play button, and stop button, and a skip button (no rewind here), and an LCD screen with just the basic info – song title, time, and artist. Comparatively, the SanDisk Sansa 8GB Fuze player is $95 and is a fully featured mp3 player, with syncing capabilities, FM tuner, full song navigation, video playback, and a photo gallery. It also reads the very same SD cards that would play in the Slot Radio player.
The preloaded cards are not configurable. If you follow this blog, you’ll soon learn that one of my biggest technology pet peeves is the lack of customization. The preloaded cards have DRM protection on it so you can’t take your favorite songs on it and put it on a different medium. However, these preloaded cards cost $40 for 1000 songs which works out as 4 cents per song! Personally, I’d rather buy a Sansa Fuze and buy a bunch of those cards until the price of the player dropped significantly to something like $35.
This product is no threat to the iPod in any way, and it is targeted towards a different consumer, the on-the-go, plug-and-play kind. I think because it requires no effort to get working, it will do very well in the market, but the reach probably won’t extend far beyond the novice user consumer market.
I recently caught wind of this interesting piece of technology. The concept is simple: bring an XM Radio-like experience to the user without the need for subscriptions and extra hardware. This means 1000 songs in a random playlist that requires zero setup; plug in the micro SD card into the player and you’re ready to go. The playlists come pre-installed with Billboard’s top 1000 songs in various genres.
I like the idea of quick music on the go. This gadget would be GREAT for car trips. It would sell very well at gas stations and rest stops. However, there are a few nagging issues I have with it. First, the player will launch at $100. It includes an FM tuner, a play button, and stop button, and a skip button (no rewind here), and an LCD screen with just the basic info – song title, time, and artist. Comparatively, the SanDisk Sansa 8GB Fuze player is $95 and is a fully featured mp3 player, with syncing capabilities, FM tuner, full song navigation, video playback, and a photo gallery. It also reads the very same SD cards that would play in the Slot Radio player.
The preloaded cards are not configurable. If you follow this blog, you’ll soon learn that one of my biggest technology pet peeves is the lack of customization. The preloaded cards have DRM protection on it so you can’t take your favorite songs on it and put it on a different medium. However, these preloaded cards cost $40 for 1000 songs which works out as 4 cents per song! Personally, I’d rather buy a Sansa Fuze and buy a bunch of those cards until the price of the player dropped significantly to something like $35.
This product is no threat to the iPod in any way, and it is targeted towards a different consumer, the on-the-go, plug-and-play kind. I think because it requires no effort to get working, it will do very well in the market, but the reach probably won’t extend far beyond the novice user consumer market.
