Creative Zen challenges Apple iPod

Creative Zen challenges Apple iPod

As promised, Creative is going ahead in full flow against the market leader Apple in the digital music player segment. Their latest offerings in the recent days have been a direct attack on the Apple’s products and the new Creative Zen is a good example of what they have in store for the Macintosh makers.

During the recent Consumer Electronics Show, which was held in Las Vegas, Creative representatives directly mocked Apple with their strategies with iPod Mini. While the world has accepted and applauded its scroll wheel navigation system, they claim Creative Zen’s linear approach to access the music device is the right and convenient way.

They also criticized iPod’s inability to replace dead batteries. Creative claims that their Zen can last up to 12 hours on a full recharge, which is much more than what Apple claims for their iPod. They would be launching more variants of the music player in the coming months. A 1 GB Zen Micro is scheduled for release in the first quarter of the current year. Other versions with bigger capacities are also planned with prices ranging from USD 199 to USD 299.

Apple is also rumored to release flash memory based iPods to cater to market expecting music players with less memory with lower prices.