First it was Walkmans, and then came Discmans. Now we see a technological outburst of
keywords mp3 players. These players enable users to keep up to 80 gigabytes of their music on a small, handheld device. Most people have used, seen, or at least heard of Apple’s iPod. What many consumers have not seen, however, are Creative’s Zen
keywords mp3 players.

Within the Zen line, there are quite a variety of keywords mp3 players. From the Zen Nano Plus to the Zen Vision W there are players ranging in space capacity from 512MB to 80GB. Capacity aside, there are many variations in Zen products. Whereas players like the Nano Plus are designed solely for music listening purposes, the Vision W and the original Zen, with their large screens, were created with an emphasis more on video watching. On the other hand, the players in the V series and the Vision: M was designed to listen to music and watch videos, with even stress on both features.

It is safe to say that nearly everyone has considered purchasing one of Apple’s notorious iPods. Many people, however, instead end up buying a Creative Zen
keywords mp3 player. This can be attributed to several factors. First is the software. To transfer music, pictures, and videos to an iPod, one must use the iTunes software. With the Zen
keywords mp3 players, however, the user may choose between Creative’s Media Explorer and Window Media Player.

Another reason why one might choose a Zen
keywords mp3 player over an iPod is the compatibility of video files. Whereas it is extremely difficult to transfer any non-iTunes purchased videos to an iPod, the process of transferring such files to a Zen player is on of great ease. In addition to this, Zen players come in a vast variety of colors, giving consumers more of a choice in the looks of their player.

The price range for Zen keywords mp3 players goes from under $50 to over $300. The reason for this extensive span of prices is the variety in storage capacity. Basically, the more bytes found in the player, the higher the cost. For example, whereas the Nano Plus, which costs less than $50, contains as little as 512MB, the Vision W, which is priced at over $300, can be found with up to 80GB.

Two Christmases ago, I received a Creative Zen Vision: M. So far, my experience has been a pleasant one. To this day, I have only two complaints about my player. First, I am not a big fan of the software. Whereas in other programs, such as iTunes, the user can sort the music on the player by artist, album, or track title, this is not the case in Creative’s Media Explorer. In the explorer, the music is seen in much the same format as Windows Explorer - in a file view. My second problem with my Zen player was with the album art, specifically the fact that it stopped showing up after about a year. Both of these problems, however, were fixed by a simple software update on the Creative Labs website.

With their small size, large capacity, and sleek designs, keywords mp3 players have quickly monopolized the market of portable music players. While Apple iPods still own this arena, Zen
keywords mp3 players are rapidly catching up.