Out of the digicam and into the iPod dock, SD cards are taking up more space on Edifier’s latest music players than proprietary 30-pin Apple connectors.
The Chinese company found a trend in the music player industry in Asia where more consumers have been using SD cards to push their music across devices.
Edifier representatives say they’ve noticed a similar trend in Germany at the CeBIT conference earlier this year, with many customers using SD cards in-car entertainment.
Edifier has taken that trend and is shipping it lower on the Asia Pacific map down to Australia in the upcoming months.
While it still maintains a range of iPod/iPhone docks, skimping on the 30-point connector in favour of a simpler 3.5mm audio jack that supports all music players as well as SD card and USB connectivity has resulted in cheaper prices passed onto the consumer.
The move follows other brands like Bang & Olufsen and Creative which have also thrown SD card slots onto a range of their sound products.
Edifiers updated ‘Tick Tock’ alarm clock is set to be released in three models, spaced out in two month intervals. While the first SD card version is slated for an $80 price point, the upcoming iPhone dock version will have a $10 premium on the back of the charge Apple lays on including its 30-pin connector.
These clocks add to the 2011 sound range across Australian retailers like Harvey Norman. Edifier is currently looking to stock its upcoming product line-up in more stores including JB Hi Fi, and is set to push more onto different retailers at a retail expo in Homebush this Wednesday.
Its new products sit across the range of home and lifestyle products and the higher-end sound products for gamers and the like.
The way the company puts it, its ‘Image’ line-up of lifestyle products go up against the likes of Bose and Harman Kardon, while its competitors in its ‘Multimedia’ system line-up include Logitech and JBL.
A hard pill to swallow for a Chinese audio company, but representatives say they’re one of the few Chinese companies to push up against some of the bigger names in sound.
