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More Competition for Apple's iPod

Techstination feature for Monday, September 13, 2004

More competition for Apple's iPod. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. A cheaper price and better battery life has made Apple's iPod more attractive than ever. But competitors are keeping up the pressure. While Apple's scroll wheel and clean, simple design still rule, competitors aren't standing still. Creative Labs, for instance, is out with the Zen Touch. It's a twenty gigabyte player…that sells for 269 dollars…30 dollars less than a comparable iPod…and you can listen to 24 hours of music on a single battery charge… Creative senior brand manager Lisa O'Malley…

"Certainly we're going to promote the battery life. But I think as you look at the player, it certainly is a good looking player. It also has Creative's new navigation, which is touch pad navigation. As you slide your finger up and down the touch pad control on the front of the player, the menus move up and down with you."

Similar to the cool feeling you get with Apple's scroll wheel. Another worthy competitor…for a lot less money…is GoVideo's new RaveMP AMP 128 or 256. The flash memory based players sell for 99 and 129 dollars…but unlike many others in the flash category…they include SD memory expansion slots. VP Kevin Brangan…

"Rave MP will have the easiest to use software. It's defined for the Windows market, which is the overwhelming majority. And they're affordable."

Both the Creative and GoVideo devices are designed to work with new Windows Media 10 software. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.