Creative Throws a Stone at the iPod Shuffle

Creative has set its sites square on the flash driven MP3 market with the Zen Stone - a 1 GB MP3 player for $40 that comes in six different colors: black, white, red, blue, pink and green.

Using the 1GB capacity as a starting point, the Stone will be able to play up to 250 songs in either a random “shuffling” or by blindly navigating from from folder to folder to concentrate on one artist or playlist specifically.

The Stone offers 10 hours of playback on a full charge, uses a basic USB connection, and supports MP3, WMA and WAV files. It will also play books by Audible.

With a price point so low, it does make sense to have a backup mp3 player when you don’t want to carry a higher capacity one like the ZenVision 30 GB model. And it’s so small, it can fit in your pocket.

Down the road, accessories like the Creative TravelSound™ ZEN Stone, player will come on line which will act as a docking player for the Stone. It’ll be a portable speaker system (think tiny boombox) which will give twice the playing time on two AAA alkaline batteries. It’ll list for US$39.99 which means you can have the complete system for less than an iPod Shuffle.

That’s Zen.