Samsung Electronics Co yesterday announced price cuts for its MP3 player series in a move aimed at competitively priced new iPod nanos.
The price of Samsung's YP-Z5 1GB model, which looks and feels similar to Apple Computer Inc's iPod nanos but boasts a longer battery life and larger screen, has been lowered to NT$4,400 (US$132) from NT$4,990.
The cost of the 2GB model has been reduced to NT$5,400 from NT$5,990, and the 4GB now sells at NT$7,000 down from NT$7,490.
These reduced price tags put the YP-Z5 on par with the new iPod nanos, which went on sale in local stores last week.
"We have to match the pricings of the iPod nanos to compete with them," David Li (李正祜), a supervisor at Samsung's Taiwan branch, told reporters at a product launch yesterday.
He said that Samsung's pricing strategy would have to reflect market conditions and that it would not take the lead in cutting prices further to boost sales.
Vendors are aggressively unveiling new digital music players, including the latest iPod shuffles, which will be available early next month.
The launches are expected to trigger a price war in December as vendors attempt to cash in on the Christmas shopping spree, Li said.
Samsung yesterday introduced two new MP3 players, including the K5 -- claimed to be the industry's first player to feature a set of compact speakers that slide out from the back of the device.
The T9, meanwhile, boasts a 1.8-inch liquid-crystal-display screen with 176 x 220 pixels, and is ideal for clear and sharp viewing of MPEG-4 video files.
For the first eight months of the year, Apple's iPods were the top selling music players in Taiwan in terms of sale value, followed by Samsung and Sony Corp respectively, according to statistics from GfK Marketing Services.
The total market size for the year will be 1 million units, up from last year's 870,000, vendors estimated.
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