Digital Home Thoughts: Dell Drops Hard-Drive Players

"Dell Inc. stopped selling its most expensive digital music players after failing to take market share from Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod. Dell, the world's largest personal computer maker, discontinued three Digital Jukebox players that sell for $200 to $300 in late December and early January, a spokesman said Friday. Dell still will sell the $99 DJ Ditty, he said. The decision underscores the difficulty companies including Dell have had trying to unseat the best-selling iPod. Dell introduced the music players in 2003 as part of a strategy to expand sales beyond desktop PCs. The versions being scrapped used hard drives to store music; newer models use cheaper flash-memory chips."

Another casualty of the iPod wars - or maybe I should call it a slaughter. This is rather unfortunate, because I like seeing competition in this space. The iPod is certainly no longer innovative - each generation is more polished, yes, but no true innovation in the platform like, oh, codec support for something other than the expensive spoon-fed audio and video that Apple peddles from iTunes. :roll: Yes, I'd like to see the iPod support more media types!