The player and the readily available storage media represent an alternative to the component shortage that is plaguing other consumer device makers, analysts said. Gartner Group Inc. The company is hoping that HipZip and the PocketZip will once again have the industry singing Iomega's tune. The disks come in packs of two, four and 10. The player will come with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery and will support both MP3 and WMA formats as well as AAC and several others.
File transfer is across a USB connection.
While the media is not solid state, such as flash memory, a 4MB buffer in the device will prevent music skipping when jostled. Several OEMs already announced support for the storage media including Sensory Science Corp., Varo Vision Co., OptoMedia Corp., LG International Corp., Rexon Technologies, RFC and Frontier Labs. The Windows Media Player 7, the default PC jukebox for the HipZip, can be used as the digital-rights manager to secure content when used with the serial numbers on the disks assigned by Iomega. Best Buy to launch campaign Retailer Best Buy will launch a nationwide ad campaign for the device on Sunday, but the players are currently available. International Data Corp. But there are still challenges to overcome.