Sonicblue Ships $99 Portable Rio Player

The Rio One debuts from the company that originated MP3 players, just in time for school.

Frank Thorsberg, PCWorld.com

Sonicblue, which introduced the portable MP3 player to U.S. consumers, is rolling out the Rio One, a sub-$100 portable digital audio player aimed at the back-to-school market.

The Rio One design is based on the original Rio 300, but this model adds a new silver color scheme, a USB port, and support for the Windows Media (WMA) format. Suggested retail price is $99.

The unit ships with 32MB of built-in memory, enough to hold about one hour's worth of tunes. It also comes with earphones and a USB cable.

"To get music onto your player, you used to have to use a parallel port," says Rio product manager Kirk Ellern. "But now we use a USB format and it's much faster."

The Rio One's software is compatible with both Windows and the Mac OS. A single AA battery will power the unit for up to ten hours of music playback. Available accessories include a carrying case and car cassette adapter. Users can expand the unit's music storage capabilities with either a 32MB or 64MB smart media card.

MP3 Mover

"As a first mover and leader in the MP3 market, we believe that the Rio brand represents a level of excellence unmatched by any of its competitors," says Janet Leising, vice president of marketing and business development for Sonicblue. "The Rio One doesn't compromise on functionality and quality, and is by far the entry-MP3 player winner."

Entry-level users are Sonicblue's primary target with the new Rio, which sells for hundreds of dollars less than the company's top-of-the-line models. Prices of portable MP3 players have dropped as the field has grown, and price tags also vary with the capacity and size of the device.

"We want to make it easy for people to get their hands on one of these things," Ellern says. "Even though MP3 players have been around for awhile, we have been serving early adopters up to now."

The Rio One is now available online through Sonicblue and it is shipping to various retail outlets.