Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Dell announced plans yesterday to acquire a private MP3 software company called ZING Systems Inc., an indication that Round Rock is interested in re-entering the MP3 product ring.

In September 2005, Dell unveiled its own player, the DJ Ditty, to compete with the iPod Shuffle –you may not recall because it all happened so quickly. The Ditty was pulled last August, less than a year after its launch. At the time, a spokesman told the Wall Street Journal the company wanted to focus instead on its core products, like PCs and printers.

ZING licenses its technology to Sirius (SIRI) and SanDisk (SNDK) for their MP3 players, and according to the company’s website, its software lets people not only listen to live digital streams but collect songs from them and make playlists.

Labels: Digital media, iPod, Zune