Philips have announced four new mp3 players in the GoGear series. Two of them are small flash based players featuring 1GB and 2GB of storage while the other two are bigger and comes with a 8GB or a 30GB disk.

Full press release from Philips

Enjoy holiday photos and music year-round with Philips GoGear™ jukeboxes

NEW YORK – To satisfy the needs of today’s mobile consumers, Philips Electronics has developed a new line of audio jukeboxes that give users complete control over their digital content. Showcased today at the 2006 CE Line Show/Holidays in June event, Philips’ new range of GoGear players have an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that make it easy to find the exact track or photo desired without having to navigate through endless, clumsy menus.

Philips’ GoGear range includes a selection of flash (SA9100, SA9200) and hard-drive (HDD1850, HDD6330) storage. The product variety is coupled with a choice of capacity options. The SA9100 features 1 GB of storage for up to 500 songs or 2502 pictures; the SA9200 offers a 2 GB capacity for up to 1,000 songs or up to 500 pictures. Whereas the HDD1850 touts 8 GB of storage for up to 4,000 songs or 2,500 pictures and the HDD6330 boasts an impressive capacity of 30 GB to hold up to 15,000 songs or 8,400 pictures.

Capable of showcasing images on a colorful display and cranking the latest holiday music simultaneously, these jukeboxes are PlaysForSure™ compatible. The GoGear players also are ideal for occupying travel lulls and showing off pictures to friends and family.

“Philips’ GoGear jukeboxes free consumers to embrace the mobile lifestyle,” said Scott Levitan, senior vice president of marketing and sales, Philips Consumer Electronics, North America. “Featuring a sleek, compact design that easily fits into a pocket or purse, the new players enable busy shoppers and traveling loved-ones to simply carry their holiday tunes with them wherever they go. The intuitive interface allows users to control their music with the slightest touch, making the music search process completely natural.”

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) forecasts that approximately 20.5 million MP3 players will be sold in 2006, generating more than $3.1 billion in sales. With the market continuing to expand, consumers are looking for products that enhance their style and provide flexible features to meet their needs. Recognizing that consumers are on the move during the busy season, Philips’ GoGear jukeboxes are gifts that provide essential features for the mobile lifestyle.

Compact convenience
Consumers will enjoy the players’ dynamic features without compromising their space, especially when packing for holiday travel. Compact and lightweight, the GoGear jukeboxes bring a new level of ease-of-use and practical day-to-day enjoyment of listening to MP3 and WMA music, as well as the ability to store and view photographs.

All four players feature backlit sensory touchpads and Philips’ acclaimed SuperScroll™ system for speedy and precise navigation through a music collection. Listeners simply tap or drag their finger along the touch-sensitive strip to maneuver through their library of music and photos.

Intuitive graphic icons, as well as album art, help illustrate menus and music tracks, while music collections are arranged into easy-to-understand categories such as artist, album, genre and playlists.

The navigation system also helps the user locate and view photos stored on the GoGear jukeboxes, enabling JPEG pictures to be shown on the large, clear and colorful backlit LCD screen. Pictures can be navigated in full-screen mode or as an array of thumbnails. They can be viewed one at a time or automatically in a slideshow accompanied by music.

Features for the mobile consumer
Busy users will welcome the GoGear players’ voice recorder function offering the ability to personalize the gift with a sentimental greeting. Additionally, consumers can use the built-in FM tuner to hear traffic reports during the hectic shopping season. Eliminating the need for a computer to create a playlist, the new players enable users to make playlists on the go, freeing them to categorize their favorite tunes whenever they desire.

Today’s consumers are on the move and their electronics need to be able to keep up. Rechargeable battery life on the HDD1850 lasts for up to 18 hours of continual music playback , while the HDD6330 model will play for more than 15 hours before needing recharging. The latest GoGear jukeboxes feature a speed charge capability where one hour of charging delivers 70 percent capacity. The SA9100 and SA9200 are conveniently charged and synched via USB and music lovers can enjoy up to 14 hours of playtime before recharging.

PlaysForSure compatibility
To ensure maximum compatibility with the growing number of legitimate music download services, Philips’ new GoGear HDD jukebox range supports the PlaysForSure initiative from Microsoft®. PlaysForSure ensures interoperability of devices and services so that consumers can simply know their device and service will work together.

The PlaysForSure logo enables consumers to match the logos of both their playback device and preferred service. Consumers wishing to buy a Philips GoGear HDD jukebox will be able to easily check whether their preferred content supplier supports the PlaysForSure initiative, ensuring they fully enjoy downloaded content on their Philips player.

A further advantage of PlaysForSure is the music subscription phenomenon enabled through Windows® Media DRM10 (formerly known as Janus). Both Philips’ GoGear HDD devices allow listeners full access to more than one million track catalogs from supporting online services. With a PlaysForSure subscription, consumers will have the ability to fill their Philips GoGear HDD jukebox for less than the price of one CD per month. Philips also makes downloading simple through a high-speed USB cable.

GoGear SA9100 available in September for $149 (1GB Flash)
GoGear SA9200 available in August for $199 (2GB Flash)
GoGear HDD1850 available now for $249 (8GB Disk)
GoGear HDD6330 available now for $279 (30GB Disk)

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