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Taiwan market: LG launches six MP3 players

Jimmy Hsu, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES Asia 0

LG Electronics recently broke into the Taiwan MP3 player market by unveiling six MP3 player models through its Taiwan subsidiary LG Electronics Taiwan Taipei (LGETT), with the products targeting the mid-range and high-end market segments, according to LGETT assistant general manager Seung-min Park.

Five of the new models are flash-based MP3 players and range in capacity from 256MB to 1GB. The sixth model (MF-HE700) features a 20GB hard disk drive (HDD) and can be used as a portable media player (PMP), with support for MP3 playback, as well as digital photo and video viewing. The six models range in price from NT$5000 (US$159) to NT$15,000 (US$459).

Taiwan’s MP3 player demand will grow from 700,000 units in 2004 to one million units this year based on projections by Topology Research Institute (TRI), and LG Electronics aims to sell 100,000 MP3 players in Taiwan this year, Park pointed out.

LGE also plans to introduce its notebook PCs to Taiwan in the fourth quarter of this year.

Taiwan market: LG Electronics six new MP3 player models

Code name

Storage capacity

Interface

Format

Battery life (MP3 play time, hours)

W*H*D dimension (mm)

Weight (grams)

Recommended retail price in NT$ (US$)

MF-FE505/509

512MB/1GB

USB2.0

MP3/WMA/OGG

12

50x25x18

30

5,990(191)/7,990(255)

MF-FE422/425

256MB/512MB

USB2.0

MP3/WMA/WAV

15

68.2x22.2x30.8

38

5,490(175)/6,990(223)

MF-FE462

256MB

USB1.1

MP3/WMA/WAV/ASF

15

33x17.5x86

34

4,990(159)

MF-FE415

512MB

USB1.1

MP3/WMA/WAV

10

85x28x23

34

5,490(175)

MF-S435

512MB

USB2.0

MP3/WMA/WAV

16

30x82.4x20

22

9,900(316)

MF-HE700

20GB*

USB2.0

Movie files: MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, Xvid, WMA, AVI, ASF; photo files: JPG, BMP; music files: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV; word files: TXT

16 for MP3, 3.5 for video

107x23x70

200

15,000(479)

Source: LGETT, compiled by DigiTimes.com, June 2005
*Hard disk drive (HDD)-based, while the other five models are flash-based.

LG MF-FE505, at only 5cm long and weighing 30 grams, is designed for ladies