Does anyone know why the processor of the clip zip and clip+ (and also Rockbox possibilites) is no more in production. There would be a lot of people thankful if this could be possible. They would even pay more money to use Rockbox and all other functions in the future…
As I understand it, the manufacturer of the chip discontinued it so SanDisk had to find another source. Other mp3 player manufacturers were also affected.
@lacres wrote:
Does anyone know why the processor of the clip zip and clip+ (and also Rockbox possibilites) is no more in production. There would be a lot of people thankful if this could be possible. They would even pay more money to use Rockbox and all other functions in the future…
It was a custom part made only for Sandisk, so they would have discontinued it when Sandisk stopped ordering them.
@miikerman wrote:
I’ve also wondered why the particular chip that was chosen as a replacement was chosen.
I think the company that designed the newer Sandisk players uses it in most of their products. They apparently specialize in low power DSP firmware/devices:
http://www.perceptiondigital.com/themes/customer/en/files/DSP.pdf
That company lists Sansa Clip clones on their website. I suspect the reason that Sandisk picked them was that it was cheaper for them to buy the clone rather than make the original.
It is probably tremendously more profitable to sell the new Jam and Sport models to everyone than to front the costs of continuing to make the old models. You really want to have as large a volume as possible. Even back when Sandisk sold a ton of different models, internally they were mostly the same device with a different plastic shell to minimize costs.
I bought the Sport foolishly thinking it would be a superset of the Zip features. What a mistake that was. The Sport is really a crippled Zip. There is not even a capability to add an album to the Go-List on the fly. I accidentally left the Sport at an overseas site and have never bothered to retrieve it. I have gone back to my old Zip despite some of the buttons needing repeated excessive force before they respond. I cannot believe that Sandisk has thrown this baby out with the bathwater.
Rattling the bones of an old thread I know, but has anyone noticed
the prices some people are asking for the Clip Zip and Clip+ players?
As I type, both Ebay and Amazon have Zip+ at around $380 AUD or 265 USD. [1][2]
What were they selling for when they were current, 40 or 50 bucks"?
If, and I stress the “if”, there’s a market for AS3525v2 devices, I ask Sandisk; WTF are you doing?
That pricing alone should be enough to have Sandisk at least investigate the business case.
Maybe buy the rights, produce it under license, something, they’re a silicon giant.
On a side note, I read above, of clone devices. Anyone able to recommend any “good” ones?
Happy Canning
[1] ebay.com.au /itm/111831394745
[2] amazon.com.au /SanDisk-Sansa-Player-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B002MAPS6W/
