Monday, September 18, 2006

RealNetworks, SanDisk Partner On Music Hardware

Seattle-based RealNetworks and SANDisk said today that they will integrate Real's Rhapsody music service into Sandisk's Sansa MP3 players. The two companies said that RealNetworks Rhapsody music service will be embedded into the SanDisk portable media players, and will include 32 hours of pre-loaded music and automatic music updating features. The partnership is the first to use Rhapsody's new Rhapsody DNA product, which allows OEMs and device partners to embed the Rhapsody digital music services into embedded platforms. The new Rhapsody DNA software goes up against Apple's popular iPod/iTunes service and Microsoft's new Zune and Zune Marketplace services.