Sandisk Launches $100, 2 GB MP3 player

SanDisk will bring a $100 MP3 music player onto the market in October with a capacity of 2 gigabytes, enough to hold about 1,000 songs.

SanDisk, which is a distant second to Apple in the digital music player market, said the Sansa c200 would retail for a recommended $99.99 in the United States and about 79 euros ($101) in Europe - the two markets where it will first launch. The new Sansa will be compatible with Microsoft’s Windows PlayForSure, meaning it will be able to download music from online subscription companies including RealNetworks Inc.’s Rhapsody, Napster and Yahoo! Music.

The thin, lightweight player has an LCD colour screen and a slot for an additional memory card, which can expand its capacity for more tunes, SanDisk told a news conference at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin. There will also be a 1 GB version, which will sell for a recommended $79.99. Both are also capable of displaying pictures. SanDisk is the world’s leading maker of flash memory data storage cards, which are used in digital cameras and mobile phones as well as MP3 players.