One from the 'I want one' file now. Yahoo in Japan has started selling the ultimate lo-fi MP3 player, the Evergreen DN2000. This small device has no screen or inbuilt hard disk, rather, owners slot in a tiny flash memory card that holds the music, which the player then plays in the order it was copied onto the card.
Each card holds up to 1 GB of music, and the player runs for about five hours off a single AAA battery. While most tech magazines have concentrated on the weaknesses of the new player, all have agreed that it is hard to knock when you consider it is being sold for 999 yen, or $8.50.
Whether there is a market for such a lo-fi player in Japan or elsewhere remains to be seen, and will probably depend to some extent on what kind of sound quality the economy line player offers, although some commentators have suggested that, if nothing else, at that price point the DN2000 could join pens and calculators as a favourite promotional item to be given away by corporate marketing departments.
Of course another interesting point this player rises is this: while there are some obvious omissions from this bit of hardware, if a basic MP3 player can be sold for a fiver, what exactly are the margins on an eighty quid 1GB iPod shuffle?