Samsung plans to release a new Google Android-powered touchscreen media player that the South Korean based company hopes will be able to compete with the Apple iPod Touch.
Similar to the Galaxy S device, the Samsung YP-MB2 PMP player will use the Android 2.1 OS, TouchWiz 3.1 touchscreen software technology, 4-inch AMOLED, and 1GHz CPU processor. The device also includes 32GB of storage, Wi-Fi, FM Radio, GPS, and a microSD card slot.
The new PMP will be based on Samsung's line of Galaxy S smartphones -- and it's already available in Korea. Samsung, iRiver, and very few other companies battle Apple in the PMP market, with touchscreen PMPs expected to increase in popularity.
Samsung plans to include MP3, WMA OGG, AAC, FLAC, AVI, MPEG4, DivX, and Xvid playback -- a decent collection of format support. The addition of the Android 2.1 OS is a nice touch.
Samsung has become one of the top electronics manufacturers in the world, and a large part of that strategy is based on consumer gadgets. I cringe every time someone releases a new product that is described as a major competitor to an Apple product -- regardless of launch, it's not an iPhone, iPad or iPod rival until it racks up solid sales.
Despite my rambling, this seems to be a solid product release from Samsung. I'm curious to hear what Korean consumers think about the device, as it does have impressive hardware specifications. Furthermore, there are very few media players available today that have touch screen technology, so this could help prompt other manufacturers to dive into the market. Hopefully this leads to even more innovation in this space.
