Wednesday, February 27,2008 @ 2:10pm
Creative fights iPod with $150 ZEN
Creative has begun aggressive steps to fight against the iPod nano and other low-cost flash players by offering major discounts for all low-end versions of its ZEN media player. The company has dropped the price of its more popular 8GB ZEN to $150, bringing it to the same price as the 4GB Apple player despite the added storage, a larger 2.5-inch screen, and potential expansion through an SD card slot. Other, smaller players have dropped to prices of $80 for a 2GB model and $100 for a 4GB version, which differ only in storage.
The company has not officially announced the drops but has effectively timed the release to coincide with a recent iPod shuffle price drop, which placed a 2GB edition of the screenless iPod just $9 above the price of the recently introduced ZEN Stone with Speaker. The move also potentially clears a path for the now expected ZEN Share, which would add Wi-Fi for player-to-player music swaps.