Creative Zen Portable Media Center based upon Microsoft Software

2004 A new era could potentially begin this week with the release of the AUD $999 Creative Labs Zen Portable Media Center (PMC), a tiny device with a 3.8” colour LCD screen and 20GB hard drive that will play Windows Media Video, Windows Media Audio, MP3, JPEG, and TIFF files.

It will synch with any Windows XP computer, but if you've got a Windows Media Center PC, you'll be able to record and transfer TV shows for on-the-road consumption.

Handheld audio/video players (aka Personal Media Players - PMPs - or Personal Video Players - PVPs) is an emerging market segment of portable devices with colour screens and the ability to play multimedia content.

Such devices have been coming to market from lesser-known manufacturers over the last 12 months but have not become mainstream as yet, largely because only the very earliest of adopters have embraced the concept.

Most of the devices released to date in this category have greater functionality at a lesser price, but none of them have the name Microsoft behind them.

The release of the PMC will enormously contribute to the overall trend to digital content and hence content portability. The portable content market will emerge this year and we can expect to see many new products with a vast array of features, design and price and we can expect the coming Christams season to be a digital content Christmas.

This is a viable, low-cost device extending the functionality of an MP3 player to video, and it carries the name of Microsoft and Creative Labs, so we think this will make a significant impact on the public psyche.

With major technology retailer Harvey Norman purchasing the entire first shipment of Creative’s PMC in Australia, there’s certain to be a big promotional campaign to kick things off, and Microsoft has two other OEM partners for PMC devices who will bring their machines to market in the near future: iRiver and Samsung.

Packing the features of a Windows Media Center PC into a cool glossy black pocket-sized player, the Zen Portable Media Center transfers video, music or digital photos from the PC via an ultra-fast USB 2.0 connection.

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