MP3 Player Galore!
I recently went window shopping at the Technology Market at Market! Market! and I’m surprised to see a vast array of no-name MP3 players being sold at the cellphone tiangge area. Most of these players are from OEM manufacturers in China and they are being sold at the price range between 2,000 Php to 3,500 Php depending on the capacity & “features”.
Its too early to tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing but at this early, I’ll make a fearless forecast:
The demand for these MP3 players will peak at around Christmastime making it among the most exchanged gift of the season.
By February next year, every other person you’ll meet walking on the street will have an earphone stuck at the side of their heads (read: they are all using MP3 players).
A new cottage industry will be popular at almost the same time — some enterprising computer owners will start MP3 Loading stations on their front porch selling music between 2.00 php to 5.00Php. I can see it now: Someone will build their own “Ay! Tyuns Myusik Store”.
I can only hope that this oversupply of MP3 players will eventually result in the lower prices of brand-name players.
Sad to admit it but I got myself one of these cheap china mp3players. I was looking for a USB thumbdrive but I saw an mp3player with almost the same price and capacity of an plain vanilla thumbdrive and casting aside warranty concerns I plunged thinking that getting 2 things for the price of one is surely a great deal. I just hate downloading music and not getting to hear them until I get them downloaded to my pc.
Well I have to say is that you get what you pay for…this thing has the crappiest interface…its slow. And it has this annoying 9 color backlight feature that cycles through the colors every time you turn the unit on. But hey it does what it is made for. Its auto detected as a external drive for Windows Me and above machines and it plays mp3s.
Its really great for short commutes, but you do give up the flaunt factor since its build quality screams out cheeeaaappp all over! Good thing is that it is really small and easy to hide. Just hide it in your pant pocket, plug in some white earphones and people will think you have a Nano! hahahaha!!!