Dell DJ Ditty digital music player

DJ Ditty hopes to take on iPod Shuffle and the Creative MP3 range

BY OUR TECH CORRESPONDENT

21st September, 2005: DJ Ditty, the latest digital music player from the house of Dell has turned up the heat on Apple's iPod Shuffle, promising to pack in 220 MP3 songs and a built-in FM audio tuner for just $99. In contrast, the iPod Shuffle can carry just 120 songs, though it comes for the same price and the same 512 MB space for memory.

The iPod Shuffle is the cheapest in the iPod lineup, though it has created its own niche in the market. Dell's DJ Ditty boasts of a one-inch LCD screen, which the Shuffle lacks. However, Dell is not keen to take on the Shuffle in the big-ticket marketing blitz - it would rather perefer to have word-of-mouth publicity to promote the DJ Ditty. 

Apple changed the market for n digital music players with the launch of the iPod in 2001. Since then, it has gone on to create several variants of its runaway hit like the iPod 60GB, iPod 40GB, iPod Photo, iPod Shuffle, iPod Mini and very recently, the iPod Nano. The iPod Nano has flash memory unlike conventional hard drives. Flash drives are costlier, but can hold more songs in less space. The latest iPod Nano can hold 1,000 songs, and is thinner than a pencil. 

Dell has also launched a special multimedia site targeting potential young buyers for the DJ Ditty. The DJ Ditty battery can play non-stop for 14 hours. The Ditty can play MP3, WMA and audio CD formats. To top it, the DJ Ditty is USB-compatible and has an integrated radio tuner.

However, unlike the iPod army, the DJ Ditty foot soldiers will not be able to tap the vast resources of the Apples iTunes library. Apple sells music online through its music store iTunes, which can be accessed only with iTunes software. The DJ Ditty measures 3.6X1.1X0.5 inches, which is quite tiny and weighs just 40 grams. It alsocomes with Music Match Software, earbuds, extra caps, lan guard and a user manual. The Ditty also comes with a 90-day liited warranty and exchange scheme.

This is the first time that Dell is launching a product which will be accompanied purely by word-of-mouth publicity.

BY OUR TECH CORRESPONDENT