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Matthew Miller, Managing Editor -- 5/8/2002
CommVerge


It's been two long years since we first covered DataPlay, a new storage technology claiming to offer up to 500 Mbytes of capacity on a quarter-sized optical disk (see "Would-be king," May 2000). In that time, the company has touted support from a growing gaggle of manufacturers and record companies. But real products haven't appeared, and the technology has remained nothing more than a conversation topic.

That's about to change, with two DataPlay-based music players nearing their market debuts. The long-awaited arrivals will finally allow an evaluation of DataPlay's technology in the only forum that matters: the market.

The iDP-100, from iRiver (left), is slated to appear on June 30 with a suggested retail price of $369. Coming in at the same price point at around the same time, Evolution Technologies' EV-500 MDP (below) will be unleashed through a branding partnership with MTV. Both machines play up to 11 hours of high-quality music from one of the 500-Mbyte DataPlay disks, have USB ports, feature 128-by-64-pixel LCDs, and are firmware upgradable.

Part of DataPlay's pitch is that its disks offer a compelling cost-capacity ratio. Blank disks will sell for anywhere from $5 to $12, depending on the capacity and the quantity purchased. That certainly beats flash-memory cards. However, recent audio players based on 20-Gbyte hard disks are currently going for $399, and a couple of 40-Gbyte models are available for $499.

The other major component of DataPlay's value proposition is content protection. Record labels—including Zomba Records, the home of Britney Spears and *NSync—have signed on to release music in DataPlay format. They're comfortable with it because all DataPlay-enabled devices will employ DataPlay's FuturePlayer application, which will enforce copyright protections.

Although record companies consider copy protection a plus, consumers definitely don't. They're accustomed to unfettered portability of their digital tunes, and we have our doubts whether they'll accept such restrictions—especially when the initial hardware investment is so substantial. Of course, volume production might reduce the cost of the DataPlay drive mechanism, but only time will tell.

Nonetheless, vendors are charged up about the prospects of their new devices. Chris Papazian, iRiver's marketing manager, says he is blown away by the size and indestructibility of the DataPlay disks. He also points out that record labels will sweeten the bait by filling prerecorded disks with extras like videos, pictures, and additional songs. Finally, he also notes that record companies plan to use the disks as promotional tools; they'll include additional songs that users could sample for free but would have to pay for (via the Web) to unlock in their entirety.
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