Creative drops prices on Zen Micro line

Creative, perhaps feeling the heat from Apple's iPod announcements last week, stirred up some noise today regarding their Zen Micro line of hard drive based players. Specifically, they dropped prices on the existing 5GB ($229.99) model and upcoming 4GB ($179.99 after a mail in rebate) and 6GB ($249.99)units.

All the specs on the Zen Micro line can be found in my previous post regarding the 5GB model from October. In summary, the Zen Micro is targeted towards the iPod Mini. The Zen Micro 4GB MP3 player can hold up to 2,000 WMA songs; the Zen Micro 5GB MP3 player can carry up to 2,500 songs; and the Zen Micro 6GB stores up to 3,000 songs. The Zen Micro family supports a wide variety of music subscription or download services such as Napster To Go, Napster, MSN Music, MusicMatch and the Wal-Mart Music Store.

"Clearly with the success of the Zen Micro and our shipment of more than two million MP3 players last holiday season, we have gained huge momentum and are putting our competitors on the defensive," said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. "We can further drive our momentum by dropping the price of our Zen Micro MP3 players. With the introduction of the Zen Micro 4GB MP3 player at the incredibly low price of only $179, we offer superior features and more than twice the song capacity of the 4GB iPod mini at a substantially better price. In addition, we offer the Zen Micro in 10 different colors, giving consumers a wide range of choices, from red, light or dark blue, orange or green, to pink, purple, silver, black and white."