You’re killing me here. EOL? There isn’t a replacement model on the shelves yet, the Fuze has a definite niche, and I haven’t even run the battery down yet! Do they teach this kind of impatience on Sesame Street?
With that in mind, maybe it’s time to brew a proper tea and have a listen. I have to catch up on BBC NewsPod. Cheers!
Bob 
The View is much older than the Fuze, so imo it would make sense for Sandisk to discontinue the View and come out with a replacement for it before disconuing the Fuze. Imo the Fuze might not be completely disconued, but perhaps updated, like Sandisk did in going from the Clip to the Clip+. When should this thread end? Perhaps when Sandisk has players that can be expanded to at least 32 GB of storage(Then we could have threads asking why Sandisk doesn’t have players that are expandable to 64 GB or more of storage).
I don’t know about anyone else, but it just seems logical to me that the Fuze should have twice the internal memory of the Clip+, given the difference in size and battery life…
O I am sure the Fuze still has some life left in it.
I didn’t know the View was that old, but that whole deal left a bad taste in my mouth.
One of the reasons I bought Sansa was because I THOUGHT they regularly updated the products.
I agree with Spock!!! errr… I mean, Marvin…:smileyvery-happy:
Why haven’t we seen a Fuze+? What would I want it to have? Having 50+ hours of battery life, a full sized SDXC card slot, AM/FM HD radio, a mini USB connector, and 16 GB built in memory would be nice.
@jk98 wrote:
Why haven’t we seen a Fuze+? What would I want it to have? Having 50+ hours of battery life, a full sized SDXC card slot, AM/FM HD radio, a mini USB connector, and 16 GB built in memory would be nice.
But remember, Sandisk is now positioning themselves as a budget player. Don’t be too quick to want a Fuze+…It will probably have a maximum storage capacity of 4GB and have 5 hour battery life! :smileyvery-happy:
I think Sandisk has kinda lost motivation, seeing how they reprted nobody can “out-iPod the iPod”. I think they’ve lost interest in the DAP market because all their efforts have been unsuccessful at gaining high level marketshare. It wouldn’t surprise me if they got out of DAPs altogether. I’d hate to see that happen because they have made some superior low-cost DAPs with the Fuze v1…which is heavily sought after… and Clip v1.
The Clip+ and Fuze have been excellent sellers. The Slotradio Player, Slotradio To Go Player, and Slotmusic Player are rather pathetic though, and have probably not sold so well. People want a player with a display that has decent navigation and a display. Even the Fuze and Clip+ though are lacking in battery life when compared to competing products. Imo the new standard stould be 50+ hours of battery life for a mid sized player like the Fuze, and 25+ hours of battery life for a smaller player like the Clip+.
In the current world marketplace, the 8GB size has been doing reasonably well. Everyone is being very conservative lately, for obvious reasons.
On the horizon, larger capacities are a possibility.
Marketing a new device is dependent upon many factors, and timing is everything. Remember, flash memory is a volatile commodity, and it’s improving every year. Cost reductions and performance improvements will make larger capacity devices a reality soon, I’m sure.
Regarding the 500 pound gorilla, Apple has a huge percentage of the market. Heck, they better have, considering the amount of marketing expenditures they make. Even Apple can produce a turkey, it’s spelled i-P-a-d. I’ll be watching that arena closely, such good stuff.
SanDisk is far more conservative with new devices. The slotRadio device is a bold stroke into a new market. SlotMusic is unique, in that it requires cooperation with music labels, and that’s like dancing on a hockey rink in your bare feet.
I’m confident that SanDisk will stay the course with the Sansa product line, as it’s a natural partner to their flash memory devices.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Message Edited by TomJensen on 05-03-2010 06:28 PM
I am surprised that you think of Amazon’s e-book marketing as a stranglehold. Amazon set the prices of their releases at a good price point, at $9.95 I believe.
With an e-book, the publisher does not incur any of the traditional expenses, printing, binding, warehousing, or shipping. Yet Macmillan decides to up the ante, with a new e-book reader coming to market. This doesn’t make sense, pardon the pun, in my book.
The only stranglehold is upstream of the vendor, Amazon.
There will always be a demand for traditional printed books. I always purchase them in hardcover, as I love to read. Paperbacks are, for lack of a better word, tacky. They are easily damaged, and uncomfortable to hold.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Amazon’s low price for ebooks is irrelevant to its dominant position, just as the low price for digital music that Apple set is irrelevant to its dominant position in the e-music market. What’s relevant is that they (Apple, Amazon) can control the price.
That Apple & Amazon have ‘low’ pricing on their e-products has more to do with their desire to exploit their first-mover advantage and strengthen their dominance, and not because they care about the customer. It’s a variation of dumping: selling products below cost to drive competition out of business. Amazon is indeed selling e-books for below what they pay to the pubs.
Consumers who measure vendor ‘goodness’ by their ‘low’ pricing will no doubt cheer on Apple & Amazon, as many do. But if Apple and/or Amazon can cement their gain and potentially become the Microsoft of their respective markets, then the true loser is indeed the consumers.
From an author’s view of the Amazon-MacMillan fracas:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-outsiders.html
Re: Pricing - Whether an e-product should be priced less because of smaller costs of production & distribution is also irrelevant, as pricing is normally a function of demand, not cost of production. Should a Lexus be priced the same as a Civic, since their production costs are similar?
Re: Physical vs e-book - There is something to be said for the tactile component of bookreading, as well as the convenience of not having to deal with DRM. WRT the first, I think it is outweighed by e-book’s superior accessibility where you have virtually unlimited number of works at your fingertips. Students: no more heavy backpacks. WRT the second, I think there’ll be ‘unofficial’ solutions to DRM that will influence official solutions, just as has happened with digital music.
The crux of your view I suspect is whether book/music publishers have any place in the new networked world. The disintermediation of the supply chain is a valid issue, and I think is one that will take place over time. But there is always going to be a pipeline between producers and consumers–even if one shorter than before–and there will always be companies who are manuevering to be the gatekeepers of that pipeline. Rest assured that none of them are doing it for the consumer’s benefit.
Anyway, this part has gone OT, so I’ll stop here. I’m more interested in Sandisk’s direction for their PMP products. Since that we have Sandisk employees here in the forums, then it would be good to hear of their insights. I wouldn’t expect any nuggets like “we’ll have product X on Y date,” but a general outlook wouldn’t be any more revealing than what Sandisk regularly provides in its 10Q filings. Hmm, maybe I’ll look that up on Edgar…
Wow, still no 16 GB Fuze, but at least there are now 32 GB micro SDHC cards. They aren’t cheap though at $129. I guess 40 GB is about the most capacity of songs the Fuze can hold at 192 kbps for many users.
I guess since there is the 32 GB micro SDHC card available, it doesn’t make sense to have a 16 GB or 32 GB Fuze unless the maximum database size can be greatly enlarged. While those who use greater than 192 kbps or have songs that average out to be quite long could make use of more than 40 GB without having a larger maximum database, too many people using lower bitrates or shorter songs would be disappointed.
Message Edited by JK98 on 08-08-2010 02:21 PM
Sandisk is driving me nuts. I can’t understand why its taking them so long to put out a higher capacity player like a Fuze + or something, or something more advanced then a Fuze altogether. Has Sandisk given up on mp3 players altogether at this point?
Perhaps they may feel that the next step up is to SDXC card support and HD radio, but have waited since they feel this might be too costly? The issue is that Sandisk has been pushing their micro SDHC cards, and SDXC cards in the micro format may be years away. I also think that Sandisk is too obsessed with having the smallest possible players, and are therefore even more reluctant to come out with players with a full sized SDXC card slot. Their obsession with small size has also resulted in their players being quite skimpy on battery life. While having players with much longer battery life will increase size somewhat, they would still be much smaller than carrying a player with an external usb battery pack and a usb cable. I guess the answer is to have a full range of players, with some that are larger that have a full sized SDXC card slot and very long battery life, and others that are much smaller like the Clip+. Imo an mp3 player is an acceptable size as long as it comfortably fits in a typical shirt pocket. Many people buy more than one player. They might want a tiny one like the Clip+ for gym and very active use, and one that is larger with much more capacity, much longer battery life, and a much larger screen to use at other times.
I still say that if they should have made the Clip+ perhaps 30-50% thicker than it is, and with at least a 30 hour battery life. The Fuze should have been a bit thicker and with a 40+ hour battery life.
I guess if Sandisk wants to gain plenty of market share, they need to greatly differentiate their players from what other companies make. Having a card slot is a start, although now there are a few companies that make mp3 players with a card slot. There aren’t any high quality players available now that use an inexpensive easily swappable battery, or any very high capacity flash memory based players. If I was in charge of Sandisk’s mp3 player division, I would focus on these things. There are many people who want to replace a high capacity hard drive based player with a flash memory based one, but who can’t find any flash based players that will hold 96 GB, 128 Gb, or even higher capacities. I always wondered why we haven’t seen players with more than one card slot. Is is so hard for SOC makers to make chips that support this, or is this due to player makers obsession with small size?
sel00264 wrote:
Sandisk is driving me nuts. I can’t understand why its taking them so long to put out a higher capacity player like a Fuze + or something, or something more advanced then a Fuze altogether. Has Sandisk given up on mp3 players altogether at this point?
If it’s going to happen, they’ll bring it out for the 4th quarter (Christmas) shopping season. They’ve done that in the past.
JK98 wrote:
Perhaps they may feel that the next step up is to SDXC card support and HD radio,
Yeah, the HD radio has done wonders for Zune HD sales.
They released the Clip+ last year at the end of Augut/start of September. That is the time to release it if they want stores to be well stocked for the holiday selling season. The Fuze was released in March 2008.
I guess the best time to release a new player might be at the end of May, so that stores are well stocked for the July/August back to school season. Of course the fall selling sason is very important, but the holiday selling season may be much more of a factor for higher priced items, and not as much for items $40-100.
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