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New Music/Video Players, Cell Phones Take the Stage

If It Moves, It Must Be a MultiMedia Device

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

January 10, 2006
If it moves, it must be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It seems like everything is mobile this year -- with mobile multimedia players topping the list, hoping to take market share from Apple's iPod.

Much of the show's thunder was stolen, however, by Steve Jobs' unveiling of the iPhone at MacWorld in San Francisco. Jobs' followers credited him with "reinventing the telephone."

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Microsoft warned that Apple won't have the market to itself. Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, said the company was thinking about integrating a mobile phone integrated with its Zune digital music player, not that Zune has exactly set the world on fire.

Bach said the device was just in the thinking stages. Microsoft had better think fast. The iPhone goes on sale in June, Jobs said.

Zune launched in November with a sales target of more than one million units by the end of June. More than 70 million iPods have been sold since 2001.

SanDisk rolled out its first portable digital music player, complete with a large screen to view video. The player will retail for about $300 and hold 33 video hours or 2,000 songs. It has a 4-inch screen, about the size of the video iPod.

Disk drive maker Seagate announced storage devices that can be plugged into any computer, allowing consumers to take Web favorites, passwords and settings, instant messaging programs, e-mail, contacts and digital files with them.

Finnish phone maker Nokia unveiled slim new multimedia handsets, hoping to take back business from Motorola, which plans to launch the ultra-thin Barracuda phone later this year.

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