A new consortium of challengers has banded together to dethrone Apple as the undisputed champion of portable media devices. Yahoo, Sandisk, and Zing have teamed up to release a new wireless mp3 player that the companies hope will steal away some market share from the iPod.
Wall Street Journal outlines the strategy:
Yahoo and its partners are gambling that they can have an impact in the market by offering a new class of connected devices that are different from iPods but with similarly tight links between hardware and Internet music service.
A key feature included in the Sansa Connect, a black device sized like a small stack of business cards, is wireless technology that's commonly used to provide Internet access through home networks and countless cafes, hotel lobbies and other public "hot spots." If Sansa Connect users are within range of a Wi-Fi network, they can connect directly to Yahoo's music services.
There’s a catch, though. You can’t download individual tracks when accessing the store from the device, but can only snag pre-packaged clusters of content. Also, the service is subscription based, so you don’t really own any of the tracks. Lack of choice and music non-ownership aren’t going to help the Sansa Connect’s reputation.
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